MAKING MOVE TO INDEPENDENCE : FOUR HONORED AS `SPECIAL' GRADUATES.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

Andrea Bivins donned a red cap and gown Tuesday night, marched onto the football field at College of the Canyons to the strains of ``Pomp and Circumstance,'' and graduated alongside 470 high school seniors.

Saugus resident Bivins and three classmates were recognized not so much for learning their reading, writing and arithmetic but for grasping independent living skills.

At 22, Bivins is one of four developmentally disabled students to receive a public school certificate of completion that - although awarded at the Hart High School graduation - isn't a high school diploma, said Tim McNulty, director of special education for the Los Angeles County Office of Education.

The others to graduate from the Los Angeles County special-education program are Laurel Meyers, 21, of Valencia, and Glenn Junio and Jason Thomas, both 21 and from Canyon Country. The graduates are among 27 students in the developmentally delayed program of the William S. Hart High School School District.

Anne Bivins described her daughter as mildly mentally retarded, with the mental capacity of a 6- to 8-year-old child.

But from her teachers and her family, Andrea has learned to print her name, do her laundry, make her bed, wash the dishes, take a city bus, walk her dog and care for her cat, vacuum and fix simple meals in the microwave, her mother said.

As part of the special-education curriculum, the Saugus woman also has held several light-duty jobs, an arrangement between the county education department and selected employers. Bivins has worked in the wardrobe department at Six Flags Magic Mountain, has stuffed envelopes at the local Department of Motor Vehicles office, mailed newspapers to out-of-town subscribers of The Signal, and most recently sorted inventory at Kay-Bee Toys in the Valencia Town Center.

Under state public education guidelines, developmentally disabled students can be schooled until the year they turn 22. As a result, this week marks a turning point for Bivins and her three classmates: The time when they leave their daily routine of schooling; with their instructors' and families' hopes they are prepared for at least partial independence and supervised employment.

From here on out, Anne Bivins said, Andrea's formal education ends; her family and employers will be her primary teachers and caretakers. ``She's been going to school since she was 3,'' Bivins said. ``She knows she'll be leaving her school and her teacher, and it might be sad for her.''

Bivins said her daughter will continue to live at home, and once she finishes a summer school program sponsored by the Hart district, she likely will start working at Pleasantview Industries, a firm that hires developmentally disabled adults to handle certain tasks.

Harbir Hayreh, a special-education teacher for the program administered by Los Angeles County, said that holding the classes at Valencia High School and College of the Canyons helped the students mature and become more responsible because they emulated the rest of the student body.

For years, Hayreh noted, special-education classes were held at various Santa Clarita Valley elementary school classrooms even though many of the students were in their teens or 20s.

Bivins and her classmates were taught skills like reading a bus schedule, paying their fare and getting transfers, buying clothes that fit, managing their money and counting their change after a purchase, reading street signs, grocery shopping, comparing prices and using the post office.

They learned, for instance, that ``a car would cost more than a hamburger,'' Hayreh said. ``The things we take for granted they need to work very hard on.'' On Tuesday morning, Bivins attended one last class at College of the Canyons. In one exercise, she and her classmates learned how to look up numbers in the phone book.

Hayreh and Julie Murrow, another county special-education teacher, described Bivins as helpful, affectionate and caring toward her classmates. ``We nicknamed her `Mother Teresa' because she's the one who takes care of everyone,'' Murrow said.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

Photo: (1--color) Andrea Bivins, 22, is set Tuesday forgraduation at the College of the Canyons for the Los Angeles County Special Education Program.

(2) Andrea Bivins already may have a job lined up after graduation.

Shaun Dyer/Special to the Daily News