The Social Security System (Caja) last week suspended payments that helped disabled children get to school in the northwestern province of Guanacaste.
The financial assistance had been helping 40 low-income families transport their children to the only special education school in the province: the AdelitaMuñozSchool in Liberia, Guanacaste’s capitol.
The Caja suspended the financial assistance because it is legally authorized to pay only for transportation for handicapped children to hospital visits, not for transportation to school, according to Caja spokeswoman María Isabel Solís. She said that although providing assistance to children in Guanacaste was laudable, it was an administrative mistake by the hospital in Liberia.
The responsibility for transporting children to school falls to the Ministry of Education (MEP), she said.
María Obando, the Education Ministry’s regional director for Liberia, said Tuesday she is not aware of any plan to pay for transportation for these children. However, she told The Tico Times that when the official report of parental complaints arrives from Adelita Muñoz, she plans to call MEP’s department of Special Education and ask how to solve the problem.
“They can’t leave these children” in this situation, Obando said. “The children have to continue with their therapy.”
