Meghan MacLeod and Cate Scott, both 18 and seniors at Mt. Lebanon High School, have been friends and classmates since preschool.

The girls assumed they would attend commencement ceremonies together this spring when the class of 2006 graduates.

But Cate learned recently that unless the Mt. Lebanon school district breaks with its past tradition, Meghan, who is a special needs student, will not be permitted to march in the graduation line because her Individual Education Plan calls for her to continue in public school beyond her senior year.

But, it appears that the wheels are in motion to make the necessary change happen in Mt. Lebanon and possibly statewide for special needs students to attend graduation with their classes.

In Mt. Lebanon, Cate has been busy collecting signatures on a petition asking that the district allow special needs students to march in the graduation ceremony. She plans to present the petition to the school board at a future meeting.

So far, she has 130 signatures of students and is hoping to get more after an article about the issue runs in the student newspaper later this month. "People are really shocked about this. They couldn't believe it. They thought it was really unfair," Cate said.

Meghan's sister, Emily, 16, and her friends attended a recent school board policy committee meeting to speak in favor of a policy that would allow special needs students to participate in graduation.

School Director Susan Rose, chairwoman of the board's policy committee, said she expects the committee to bring a policy to the board in either March or April that will propose allowing special education students to participate in commencement exercises and receive something similar to a certificate of attendance rather than a diploma.

In Harrisburg, the state House of Representatives in December unanimously approved House Bill 1618, which calls for all 501 school districts in the state to allow disabled students who have completed four years of high school to participate in graduation ceremonies with their classmates.

The bill calls for presenting the special education students with a "certificate of completion." It now sits in the Education Committee of the state Senate.

It's that bill that prompted the Mt. Lebanon board to get to work on a policy that would allow for the inclusion of special needs students in graduation ceremonies. Mrs. Rose said the board wanted to have a policy ready to go if the state legislation is approved this month.

But, Mrs. Rose said, she believes the policy committee will present a proposed policy to the full board for discussion and action within the next several months regardless of whether the state legislation passes. She said she is hopeful that Mt. Lebanon will have the policy in place for this spring's graduation ceremony.

Jan MacLeod, Meghan's mother, said she also is hoping that her daughter will be able to participate in graduation. "I want her to walk in the graduation line," Mrs. MacLeod said.

Meghan, who has a high-functioning form of autism known as Asperger's syndrome, is the oldest in her family and already has had to watch her younger sister get a driver's license and a job before her. Mrs. MacLeod said Meghan would be disappointed if her classmates and her younger sister were able to graduate before her.

The Mt. Lebanon School District has had requests in the past for special education students to participate in graduation, but they have been denied because administrators have argued that special education students' education doesn't end after 12 years. Many special education students continue their education and vocational training until age 21.

"Our practice has always been that commencement is the event where students receive their diplomas," Mt. Lebanon Superintendent Dr. George Wilson said.

But the pending state legislation has prompted school officials to think differently this year.

Mt. Lebanon is not the only local district that hasn't allowed special education students to march in the graduation line.

One of the most high-profile local cases occurred in the Woodland Hills School District in 1999 when Scott Federbusch, a student with Down syndrome, was not permitted to take part in the graduation ceremonies along with his sister.

District officials said he could not participate in graduation because he had not completed his special education program. His family took their fight to Commonwealth Court, but the court ruled in favor of the district.

Senior Judge Emil Narick wrote, "We can find no language in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or state special education requirements, which grants or requires a disabled student the right to participate in a graduation ceremony where the student has not yet met the requirements of graduation."

It was a similar situation in the Selinsgrove School District in Snyder County that prompted state Rep. Russ Fairchild, R-Lewisburg, Union County, to sponsor the legislation under consideration.

"I had a constituent in my district who had a child with special needs. She was very upset because the school district was not going to allow the girl to participate in graduation ceremonies in spring 2006," Mr. Fairchild said.

Mr. Fairchild drafted and introduced his legislation and in the meantime the school district changed its policy to allow special-needs students to participate in graduation. Even though the legislation is no longer necessary to help his constituent, Mr. Fairchild said he's still pushing for its approval for others.

"If this goes into law, then every special-needs student that wants to march will be able to do it," he said.