It was Ben Lomond High School’s 72nd annual commencement ceremony.

Lily told the Standard-Examiner it was a fun time and she was happy seeing everyone in their caps and gowns.

As with most students, a network of support from family and teachers helped Lily reach the moment. But also aiding her was a program that many don’t even think of, yet provides a crucial service to those students with special needs — Ben Lomond High School’s special education program.

Recently, the Standard-Examiner sat down with Karen Harrop, director of Specialized Educational Services for Ogden School District, to discuss this vital program and how it helps students with special needs not only succeed in the classroom but also prepare for life after high school.

Rob Nielsen, Standard Examiner

Harrop said there’s an overarching goal for specialized education, wherever it is implemented.

“The special education program at Ben Lomond — or at any of our high schools or junior highs or elementary — provides services for students with disabilities to help them make progress on or access the general education curriculum at their school,” she said.

She noted that Ben Lomond High School currently has seven special education teachers on staff.

Harrop said Ben Lomond’s special education services span a large spectrum.

“The services may be reading support or math support for a student with a learning disability,” she said. “It may be written language support for a student with a learning disability. Or it may be students who have executive functioning disorders and need help with accessing classes, strategies to organize, staying on task, completing assignments to students with speech and language disorders who need support in articulation or language disabilities to students who have more significant cognitive disabilities and may require support in all core areas, meaning English language, arts and math.

“They also maybe need support in learning daily living skills, independent living skills. That’s what we call adaptive skills — those daily tasks that we all do to get through our day. Some of our students with more significant cognitive disabilities may require support in obtaining those skills that they need to be able to function in the school environment as well. We also have supports for students with behavior disorders that require behavior intervention plans or behavioral support to be independent and successful in their school day. So it’s a wide variety of services that are available to serve a wide variety of students’ needs.”

She said there are even transition programs that help take individual students beyond high school.

“While in high school, what we call IEP teams who meet annually with the families of students with disabilities and then the school staff that are involved in carrying out their educational plans meet and do what’s called the transition plan,” she said. “They are looking at what is it the student wants to do when they leave this high school setting, and then they create a plan to help them be able to accomplish that.

Harrop said this can involve everything from post-high school education to living arrangements.

“They’re looking at post-high school education,” she said. “If a student says, ‘I would like to be a welder,’ then we would say, ‘OK, what kind of training and certification programs are required for you to become a welder? Where are those offered? What information or what path can we put you on to access those classes or that training?’  So we’re looking at the education part of the transition to help them be able to get where they want to be post-high school. We’re looking at the independent living place of, ‘Where do you want to be living when you leave high school? Are you planning on living at home or apartment with roommates?  Do you want to live independently?’ And then based on that student’s desire, we’re saying ‘What skills do you need to be able to do that successfully?’ And maybe it’s learning budgeting. Maybe it’s learning how to take UTA so they can get from your apartment to your workplace or to the community store to buy what you need to do, how to pay bills, so we’re looking at that post-high school goal for that student from the age of 14 for our students with disabilities.”

She said the transition program is available to students who need it until they turn 22.

According to Lily’s father, David, she will be in the transition program. She received an alternate diploma as a result, according to Harrop.

Harrop said that all of the programs are individualized and there are also many community partners involved.

“The services that students are getting at Ben Lomond are individualized to their needs, and the services that students get in post high and the transition programs are also individualized to their needs,” she said. “We have multiple sites for our transition programs that include Catholic Community Services, the United Way campus, our district campus, the ATC. So we have students who are also enrolled in the ATC getting licenses or certifications in those programs, again, for the purpose of helping them meet their end post high goal of whatever it is they want to do employment wise or education wise. And then we have a lot of job sites out there that our students are traveling to. … Those are phenomenal agency collaborations that are, you know, partnering with us as a school district (to) really improve the quality of the job coaching and the job experiences that our students are having.”

With graduation out of the way, Prout said that she loved her teachers at Ben Lomond High School.