June 7, 2019, Norwich Eastern Daily Press: Norfolk to get 90 new specialist school places for children with autism https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/politics/new-school-places-for-children-with-special-educational-needs-1-6094109 Ninety new specialist school places for children with autism will be created in Norfolk's mainstream schools, as council bosses try to improve support for youngsters with special educational needs. Norfolk County Council is spending £120m [$152M US dollars] to create more than 500 extra school places for children with special needs and disabilities. Around 21,000 children in Norfolk have special educational needs or disabilities and that number is increasing. Part of the county council's strategy is to create 10 new specialist resource bases within existing schools to provide up to 170 new spaces. … With the need for places for children with autism particularly pressing, the council wants to create 20 extra secondary places in each of the eastern, western and southern parts of the county. … That is as well as a new 90-place school for autistic children in the north of the county. Bids are also being sought from schools to create more than 50 new places for children with social, emotional and mental difficulties. Protesters last month took to the streets of Norwich to call on the government to address the "national crisis" in special educational needs funding. … In March, the government announced four special free schools would be created in the East of England for children with special educational needs.
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