They fear that without specialist support their children will face majorproblems in mainstream schools.
The Laleham Gap pre-school unit, based at Newlands Primary school inRamsgate, closed in July, along with the Headstart unit at St Anthony'sspecial school in Margate. Headstart was reopened for this term onlyafter the school offered emergency funds from its own budget.
Michelle Wilkes, who is leading the campaign to reopen Laleham Gap, saidher seven-year-old autistic son, Jordan, has only been able to manage ina mainstream school because of the specialist help he received in thepre-school.
She said her son Harvey, who is three next month and has a severe speechdisorder, will be denied the same support. 'There is no other provision,even though we are told early intervention is the best way. There was nopublic consultation.'
Elizabeth Poole, the teacher in charge at Laleham Gap for 18 years untilshe retired this year, said the unit had helped 400 children. She saidfewer than 10 per cent went into special education, and the rest went tomainstream schools.
'All the children we took in had been in mainstream nurseries with somesort of provision from specialist services and speech and languagetherapy services. But it wasn't sufficient - they lacked the rightenvironment and the holistic approach.'
Kent County Council claims that other parts of the county do not enjoythe same level of service and that the children from the Ramsgate andMargate units would be better off in mainstream settings nearerhome.
But Ms Poole disagreed and pointed out that children only attended theunit two days a week and spent the rest of the time in mainstreamnurseries.
Further information: www.ipetitions.com/petition/saveheadstart.
