Rotorua's Ali Bruns has fought for years to gain special needs support for her eldest son and is now turning to the Rotorua Education Initiative for help.
Angus Bruns, 9, was diagnosed with neurofibromatosis type one disorder at a young age.
He suffers from a tumour behind his left ear and a range of in-class difficulties.
Mrs Bruns applied for Government funding under the Ongoing Resourcing Scheme (ORS) last year to help her son at school, but was declined as Angus was not at the extreme end of high needs.
"There are a lot of children that are missing out," Mrs Bruns said. "If your child does not meet the criteria you do not get funding."
She said there was only a small amount of funding for children at the mid-range of special needs.
Mrs Bruns and Lynmore School principal Lorraine Taylor sent an email to schools in the region to see if they were also struggling with a lack of funding. She said 15 schools responded, advising 145 special needs students fell into this category, needing more support.
Mrs Bruns said schools were doing the best they could with the amount of funding they were given, but the Government clearly needed to provide more support for these children.
"[Lynmore School] have been very good at accommodating Angus, but like any parent with a special needs child I want more, I want more for him."
She said at present Angus receives an hour a day teacher aide attention at school, but more one-on-one time would help immensely.
"When I heard about the Rotorua Education Initiative I thought, crikey, this is a great opportunity for children with special needs."
The Rotorua Education Initiative, which was established at the start of this month, was set up to work among the community and improve educational success for young people in Rotorua.
Te Taumata o Ngati Whakaue Iho Ake, which was appointed as the lead group for the initiative, general manager Roana Bennett said they would consider supporting special needs children.
"We are in the very early stages of the initiative but it is being considered," she said. "Anything that is a barrier to education is something we want to look at."
She said they will be holding a community meeting on August 23 and 24 to hear issues people in the community would like addressed.
Rotorua Principals Association president Lorraine Taylor said help from the Rotorua Education Initiative would be welcome, but the biggest problem lay with the current funding systems.
"Schools have to take money out of their operational grants to support their children with special needs. They are spending exceeding amounts of money," she said.
She said the best thing the Ministry of Education could do was a full review of their funding models around special needs.
"It's absolutely desperate. They are the biggest at-risk group and seem to fall through the cracks all the time."