$23m funding for rebuild of two special schools, in Auckland and Christchurch

Two special schools will be rebuilt at a cost of $23 million, the Government has announced. Photo / File

Two special schools will be rebuilt at a cost of $23 million, Associate Education Minister Tracey Martin has announced.

Auckland's Sommerville Special School in Panmure, the country's largest special school, will be rebuilt on its current site at the former Tamaki Intermediate School site at a cost of $17 million.

Another $6m will be spent relocating and rebuilding Allenvale Special School in Christchurch. It will move from Bryndwr to Belfast West.

Martin announced the funding, which was allocated in Budget 2018, during a visit to Sommerville today.

"We are prioritising new spending to remove barriers to young people's access to education and learning. We want to ensure every child with learning challenges has access to the tools and professionals they need. We know that learning support funding has been inadequate for more than a decade," Martin said.

Sommerville, which already has more than a dozen satellite units in nine host schools, has more than 270 high-needs students aged five to 21, will get a second secondary site at Glendowie College. Work on that will begin in December.

Allenvale is a specialist provider for students eligible to receive targeted funding through the Ongoing Resourcing Scheme (ORS). It has a number of satellite units, including an off-site tertiary education unit for students aged 17 and over.

Today's announcement is part of the $332 million School Growth Package of new capital spending in Budget 2018.