Even parents of such children may struggle to find out what is on offer; the Special School Profiles, published by the Committee on Home-School Co-operation, are available only in Chinese.

The vast majority of parents that have children with special needs and speak English or a foreign language at home turn to the fee-charging English Schools Foundation and international, private and non-profit sectors for schooling.

The ESF is funded by the Education Bureau (EDB) to provide places at its Jockey Club Sarah Roe School for children with severe learning difficulties and in learning support centres at six primary schools and three secondaries for those with mild to moderate problems. Children with mild learning difficulties that require minimal teaching and learning adjustment are catered for within mainstream classes in all ESF primary and secondary schools.

In 2008, the ESF called on the EDB to provide more funded places for students with special needs to cut its waiting list of 150 children and average waiting times of more than two years.

Yet the number of places in ESF learning support units has risen by only seven in the past three years to 133, with no rise in the 60 places at the Sarah Roe school for children aged five to 19.

Alan Howells, principal of the Sarah Roe school and the ESF's special educational needs adviser, said waiting lists today were still long, with the shortage of places particularly acute in Year One. 'I would be very keen for the ESF to develop their programmes and provide more,' he said. 'The demand is massive. There are quite a number on waiting lists and we only have a set number of places we can offer.'

Howells said the number of places in learning support units would rise in the coming school year to 140 - including 77 at primary schools - and there would also be a small expansion of assessment services. A speech and language therapist and an occupational therapist would take up new posts in August at the ESF Therapy Centre, which provided initial assessment of children's special needs, he said. 'This is so we can offer a multi-disciplinary approach for assessment,'

ESF kindergartens will accept children with mild learning difficulties that can cope in mainstream classes, but do not have any learning support units and, therefore, cannot admit those youngsters that require more extensive teaching.

Kindergarten services for children with special needs are offered by several non-profit organisations, including the Child Development Centre, at Matilda Hospital, and the Watchdog Early Learning and Development Centre, which both now operate on two sites.

The Children's Institute and the Rainbow Project cater for children with autistic spectrum disorders at kindergarten and primary level and the Autism Partnership School serves more than 70 such children of primary age.

A few international schools have also begun to admit children with special needs. Hong Kong Academy takes students with mild to moderate learning difficulties, aged three to 17, who are able to participate in mainstream classes at some level and now has 45students with special needs - 10 per cent of its total roll. It has a learning support unit for children needing specialised help.

The International Christian School launched a pilot programme called Bridges for children with moderate to severe learning difficulties in its elementary section last year, enrolling seven children. The youngsters receive small-group and one-to-one tuition and can spend up to 49 per cent of the timetable in mainstream classes.

The school has approval from the EDB to admit seven more children in the coming school year and will extend the programme to its middle school section. Children will receive a certificate of completion at the end of the programme.

Other international schools are working with non-profit organisations to provide opportunities for children with special needs to enter mainstream classes. The Children's Institute, which teaches children with autism aged three to 11 using Applied Behaviour Analysis, sends some students to join classes at the Harbour School.

The Springboard Project, catering to students with mild to moderate learning difficulties, including Down's syndrome and autism, runs a learning support unit at Korean International School serving the primary and middle-school sections.

As well as suitable schooling, parents need to consider the pathways that will lead secondary students with special needs on to tertiary education, employment and independent living.

The Nesbitt Centre, which is funded by the Social Welfare Department, provides vocational and life-skills training to young adults with special needs aged 16 and above, including those with severe learning difficulties.

It offers structured work placements and provides sheltered accommodation, where youngsters can learn to live independently. The centre is opening a coffee shop staffed by its students at St John's Cathedral in September.

However, Howells said that Hong Kong needed far more vocational training opportunities for young adults with special needs, especially those at the mild to moderate end of the spectrum.

'There really is a shortage of places for those aged 19 to 25,' he said. 'If you look at other countries around the world, there are colleges to further their education. But here there is nothing.'

The territory needed vocational colleges to provide school-leavers that had mild to moderate learning difficulties with training and work placements that would prepare them for employment in sectors such as retailing and catering.

Curiously, a programme developed 18months ago by Springboard, a charity for children and young people with special needs, which aims to prepare school-leavers with special needs for tertiary education, employment and independent living, has so far failed to get off the ground owing to lack of interest.

'The programme is ready, but we don't have enough children to start,' said May Chow, the charity's executive director. She said its premises - a Government Property Agency flat - might have put some parents off and it was, therefore, seeking a new home.