Oaklynn Specialist School supports students with the highest learning needs, but is unable to find space for new enrolments. File photo. Photo: Unpslash/ Laura Rivera
A West Auckland school for students with special needs that is struggling for space is indefinitely closed for new enrolments.
Several building projects at the school have been cancelled by the Ministry of Education.
Oaklynn Specialist School in New Lynn supports students with the highest learning needs, who are funded through the government's Ongoing Resourcing Scheme (ORS).
It closed enrolments in July last year and principal Louise Doyle told Checkpoint they now have between 40 and 50 children on their wait list.
"Often what happens is our lovely Ministry of Education staff who are very supportive of our placements, bring families to have a look at our schools. We show them around, we show them some options and then we're actually unable to find them a place.
"It's very disappointing for families, especially when they choose a specialist setting that they think will be the best place for their young person."
She said the school has closed their enrolments indefinitely after they had several Ministry of Education property projects cancelled.
"They've said that they're still on the list to be addressed and to be put into the next budget rounds. But for the moment, we're telling our families that they're cancelled because I can't have people waiting and I can't have staff waiting in hope.
"We had about three classes that were cancelled on us last year, so [on] our waiting list, we've got students waiting for over a year, 18 months for some of these places."
If a student has received ORS funding, an option for some families is to stay in their local kindergarten or ECE for an extra year, she said.
"They might remain in that setting for another year because young learners can stay in their early childhood setting until the age of six.
"Other families choose for their tamariki or their rangatahi to remain in a mainstream school and that then puts pressures on local schools."
Some families also may choose not to send their children to school at keep them at home, she said.
"We have a couple of families where we're actually supporting them in the home setting to ensure that they're getting some education and engagement in learning."
Doyle said some students who are funded by ORS are doing well in mainstream settings, she said.
'We are part of our local community of about 30 schools and there's many students that are supported excellently by our local schools, and there [are] a little group of learners that have much more complex needs."
Students with more complex communication needs and sensory needs would benefit from a specialist setting, she said.
"They're the ones that are missing out particularly and they're the ones that our local schools are really struggling to meet their needs."
She said in West Auckland, there were 10 specialist schools and most had waitlists. Another Auckland school that also caters for students with special needs has closed its roll until 2027.
"All of them would have a wait list [apart from] one, and that's because some of their projects have been accepted, but also across the motu in other parts of the country we know that there are wait lists as we wait for building projects."
She said her message to the government would be to prioritise highly vulnerable and complex young learners and their whanau.
"While they can't get into our schools, it causes huge distress for the learner, their family and whanau and carers, and also for their local schools and principals and teachers.
"It's about steering some of the money that we hope is being freed up, as rumour has it, towards our settings and opening up more building projects for us that are already established but also establishing other day specialist schools in parts of the country that don't have them already."
Checkpoint received a statement from the Ministry of Education, which said it was currently upgrading Oaklynn's classrooms and bathroom facilities at Chaucer School.
There will be upgrades to property facilities in the school's 10-year plan, but it confirmed new and additional satellite teaching spaces for Oaklynn Special School were not prioritised in the current round of funding.
In last year's Budget, $90 million was allocated to the specialist school network, but the ministry said it must prioritise its investment throughout the country where there was the greatest need.
The ministry said it will continue to work with schools and their communities, to provide learning support provision where there is a more immediate need at a local level, which included students being supported to attend their local school.
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