A local mother is losing hope that her son will be offered a special school place in Athlone this September.
A new long-awaited Autism class was announced for the town's community college in July however Michelle Lynch claims despite contact with the school, she's yet to receive any information or documentation.
Shannonside FM has also contacted Longford/Westmeath ETB and are awaiting a response.
There are currently 11 children with Autism awaiting a school place in the Athlone area and the local parent fears the unit will not be ready on time to accept children at the start of the academic year.
Michelle feels the announcement by the Department of Education last month was made to keep parents quiet however she says the Athlone Autism support group will take to the streets again if the places are not offered.
The local mother is fearful she will be forced to home school her son Gareth this September.
''I've applied for the homeschool forms just have them signed and ready just in place for the end of August if I can't get Gareth into the class, like we're just ringing and emailing and we're contacting everyone we can to try and find out if the child is going to school in August and we're hearing from nobody. I don't want to give the child false hope either to stress him out. There's no guarantees.''
