Save school for disabled, parents ask PM

Parents desperate to save NSW's only boarding school for severely disabled children are appealing to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to stop its closure.

Kingsdene special school, run by the charity Anglicare for 33 years in Telopea, in Sydney's north, is due to shut at the end of 2010.

One of the parents told AAP the school cost about $3 million a year to run, of which Anglicare contributed $1.2 million.

Anglicare said it had received money from state and federal governments, as well as special emergency injections.

But Kingsdene had run at a loss since 2007, when the federal government ceased its special funding and it could not continue operating.

"This is a sad day for Anglicare, for the staff of Kingsdene and especially for the students and their families," Anglicare chief executive Peter Kell said of the closure on the charity's website.

"Kingsdene is the only school of its type left in Australia ... (and) has received numerous accolades for its exceptional work in enabling children with disabilities to blossom and flourish in their own unique way."

Devastated parents are calling for the federal government to step in and stump up more money to keep the facility running.

Bernadette Moloney is one of about five mothers planning to travel to Parliament House in Canberra on Monday to make a direct plea to Mr Rudd.

"The government says there is no more money for the school - that it is receiving maximum funding," she told AAP.

"I want to know how the funding formula was worked out, who did (the government) consult about this? No one is representing us."

Ms Moloney's 16-year-old son Charley Armstrong has attended Kingsdene for 10 years.

She said parents will be at a loss if the service is "ripped away".

"If it closes, there is no other school to support the complex learning needs of these students," she said.

"People will just have to dump their kids at hospitals or respite when they can't go on any longer.

"(Kingsdene) becomes a lifeline and to hear it is being taken away, it is a horrible, horrible feeling."