OTTUMWA — Helping kids with special needs reach their full potential can be an especially rewarding job.

The Career Connections Program allows teachers like Jimmy Stevens to help disabled high school seniors successfully transition into the job force.

“My first thought was, ‘We need to make more people aware of it,’” Stevens said. “It’s a really good program.”

Students who are in special education and want to find employment get the extra assistance they need via a partnership between the school, the Area Education Agency and Iowa’s Vocational Rehabilitation service.

Generally, the students with the most severe cases or mental retardation have not enrolled in the program. One of the requirements is that students must be employable.

“When I started, they said the students we would be working with are going to need a little more time, a little more help to get a job,” Stevens explained.

“One goal is for them to learn the soft skills needed for employment,” said Wendy Alger, another Career Connections Program instructor.

This week, the pair told the Ottumwa school board that some of the students understand these life skills while others have not needed them during their lives.

“Social skills, hygiene, developing a resumé, some interest inventories,” listed Stevens. “Right now, we get them when they meet the requirements for graduation. I’d like to start getting them earlier [for instruction] starting junior, sophomore year.”

Statewide, the idea of helping special education students move into the workforce through an extra year of school is known as TAP — the Transitional Alliance Program. The program is funded through a state grant.

Stevens told the board Ottumwa is ahead of the game. At a recent state seminar, other educators told the team how the Ottumwa Career Connections Program has influenced their own school policies.

“We’re the model for the state. I was proud to hear that,” he said.

Special education students who join the program — there are 17 in this year’s class — volunteer to remain in school an extra year. First, there will be a period where students set goals for themselves.

Things can get touchy for advisors when a special education student forgets to take into account any limitations they may have when choosing a career field. Besides being diplomatic, said Stevens, he and Alger tend to focus on what students are capable of rather than what they cannot do.

“We help them set realistic goals,” Alger told the board.