Students and families celebrate new beginnings at Beyond Blindness graduation

Graduation is a time to celebrate the closing of one chapter and the beginning of another for every student. For Beyond Blindness — a nonprofit education and early prevention provider for children with visual impairments — celebrating new beginnings this graduation season wasn’t just for students and their families.

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Five years ago, the CEO of Beyond Blindness, Angie Rowe, contacted Orange County Head Start to discuss a potential partnership. As a larger nonprofit child development organization, OCHS provides services to Orange County children and their families with specific needs stemming from disabilities, poverty or other circumstances.

In March 2025, the partnership between OCHS and Beyond Blindness became official.

And on Friday, June 26, the first 12 preschool students of the partnership walked the graduation stage at the Beyond Blindness schoolgrounds in Santa Ana.

“What made it especially meaningful was that many of these children started with us when they were just 6 months old,” Rowe said. “Their families believed in us before we had this level of funding or support. They stayed with us through COVID, through all the uncertainty, and we got to celebrate everything these children have accomplished.”

With the new partnership, 60% of Beyond Blindness’s funding is met through OCHS support, the other 40% coming from philanthropic donations.

Along with an enhanced preschool curriculum and two upgraded playgrounds, the partnership has increased the number of children able to receive preschool education and care at Beyond Blindness to 64 students.

Among them are Liam Espinoza and Dylan Oman, two 3-year-old boys who walked the graduation stage on Friday and have been with Beyond Blindness since before the partnership with OCHS began.

Dylan’s older brother, 9-year-old Ethan Oman, was born with a rare genetic mutation that causes seizures and global developmental delay. He has received services, including speech and occupational therapy, from Beyond Blindness since he was born and graduated from both the toddler and preschool programs years ago.

“I loved how inclusive it was, because he was able to interact with healthy, neurotypical peers, and he was treated the same,” Ethan’s mother, Emery Oman, said. “I knew that eventually, with our other kids, I would want to put them through the same thing.”

Liam has received services from Beyond Blindness since he was 8 months old. Shortly after being born, Liam was diagnosed with microphthalmia, an eye condition that causes underdeveloped eyes and visual impairment.

Liam’s mother, Elizabeth Espinoza, has seen large improvements in her son since the partnership with OCHS began.

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“I’ve noticed how much his speech has improved this year,” Elizabeth Espinoza said. “I think they’ve made such a smooth transition that it doesn’t feel like there were major changes. It feels the same, but enhanced.”

This past year, Beyond Blindness has worked to reach the performance standards of OCHS by improving the preschool curriculum and introducing at-home parent-teacher conferences with students and their families.

“It’s really upleveled the program and forced a lot of things for us to do in the classroom that are great for our kids,” Rowe said. “What has really been awesome over the last year is how much we’ve learned from each other and how much we’ve been able to retain Beyond Blindness and our unique way of doing things with their support.”

The classrooms at Beyond Blindness have an even split between typically-developing children and children with developmental disabilities. The makeup of each classroom is an intentional design, Rowe said, to develop empathy and a desire for each child to reach their full potential, no matter their abilities.

“We want everybody to be able, in our vision, to achieve their fullest potential,” Rowe said. “We should be working to make sure that whatever their potential is, that these types of places help those families reach that child’s individual potential.”

The partnership between Beyond Blindness and OCHS hopes to do just that: reach the full potential of early development care for children in Orange County.

“I’ve seen this place grow so much, and it’s just for the better,” Emery Oman said. “I think that it’s beautiful that it’s such an inclusive program. You’re not gonna find that anywhere else near here. I think it’s great for the community, and just great for families like ours that get to experience both sides of having a disabled child.”

While both Dylan and Liam will be attending public school next year, Beyond Blindness invites students to return to the school for other programs and family events.

Beyond Blindness will continue working with Liam next year by providing aid specialists who will help adapt classroom materials for Liam’s needs.

“I’m hopeful,” Elizabeth Espinoza said. “I know that he can do it. Here, he can just be himself. He was allowed to be who he wanted to be, and yet he still grew.”

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“That, I think, is amazing for him to just carry on.”