KEY POINTS:
There used to be three speech and language units in New Zealand. Now there is just one. And parents of children at the remaining speech and language unit in Takapuna have learned their centre will also be shut down this year.
It is devastating news for the Torrances,
who hoped the special unit would provide their daughter Cassie with the critical early intervention she needs in order to be part of a mainstream classroom.
Cassie, 6, has a speech impediment called verbal dyspraxia which has left her with the expressive language ability of an 18-month-old.
Her mother Maria said there was no way Cassie would survive in a mainstream classroom where expression is a big part of learning.
There are seven children and three teachers at the Takapuna unit and so Cassie gets the attention she needs, Mrs Torrance said.
She knows other children with the same condition who have been through the special unit and are doing well in mainstream classrooms because of it.
Five years ago parents were alerted that the school was in danger of closing, but it remained open as it was the only option geared towards children with speech development delays.
But last month the parents of children at the speech and language unit found out the board at the Kelston Deaf Education Centre (KDEC) had struck the class off its list of funding projects for the year.
Mrs Torrance understands the centre is now waiting for the Ministry of Education to sign it off.
She said it was unfair: "There are specialist schools if you are deaf, if you are blind, if you are intellectually disabled ... this is the only unit in the whole of New Zealand."
The Government currently funds the children's tuition and pays for three teachers a head teacher, a full-time teacher's aid and one who does the arts and crafts.
The family has been told Cassie will be fine in a mainstream school with a few hours of teacher-aid time but Mrs Torrance does not agree.
"Unless you have had a child with learning difficulties you would never know," she said.
Cassie may qualify for a couple of hours of publicly-funded teacher-aid time if she is mainstreamed but no more.
The family tried the Ongoing and Reviewable Resourcing Schemes funding which would give her much more funding, but the family was told it did not qualify even though Cassie suffers multiple problems - she is not toilet-trained and has problems with her balance as well as her language difficulties.
The families have contacted various MPs' offices and KDEC is having a meeting when school reopens.
Kelston Deaf Education Centre and the Ministry of Education did not respond to the Herald.
