Phil and Louise Treweek with their daughter Ellen, centre who will be attending Salisbury School.

Phil and Louise Treweek spent two frustrating years trying to get their 15-year-old daughter Ellen into Salisbury School.

Finally, on the family's fifth attempt, they were accepted into the special needs girls' school in Richmond. The following day Education Minister Hekia Parata announced plans to close the school for good.

Phil said that it was upsetting that the ministry had taken away the family's choice about what's best for their daughter.

Ellen has a mild intellectual disability which her parents say affects her ability to learn and socialise in the mainstream school system.

"The education is a plus," he said. "It's the social side and structure that's going to make all the difference for her," Phil said.

It will be the culmination of two years and five attempts by the family to secure a place at the school. They feel the move is essential for their daughter's development and integration into the community.

The Treweeks, who are from Hamilton, were concerned about the impact a potential closure could also have on other children who may fall through the cracks of the education system.

Ellen will become the tenth pupil enrolled at the special needs institution when she starts class in term three.

However, Education Minister Hekia Parata last month announced she had initiated consultation with the school's board over its future, with a proposed closure date of January 27. It was the day after Ellen was accepted into Salisbury.

"The ... boarding school has a long history of educating girls with high and complex needs but the successful implementation of the Intensive Wraparound Service [IWS] has reduced the demand for residential schooling," Parata said.

Parata said since 2011, the roll at Salisbury had fallen from 72 to nine which pushed the per-student cost of educating girls at the school up to $214,909. In comparison, the average cost of providing support through the Intensive Wraparound Service was $27,000.

The IWS programme works with students with "highly complex, challenging behaviour", according to the ministry.

Under the programme a ministry psychologist works with the student, family and teachers to create a plan to support the student at school, at home, and in the community.

However, Phil said Ellen's two years spent trying to get into the IWS framework had been frustrating.

He said Ellen's behavioural difficulties had made home life difficult for the family. This increased their desire to have Ellen receive the 24/7 care through boarding at Salisbury.

The time that went by with four rejected applications to Salisbury could have been better spent in the school, he said.

"She's really good with things like memory, but it's the processing that she struggles with."

Halswell School in Christchurch, a special needs school for boys, is in consultation to become a co-ed school.

However, Phil said this "presented a whole other set of problems" for parents of a teenage daughter.

Despite the news of potential closure Phil and Louise were hopeful that the next two terms spent at Salisbury would bring some benefit for Ellen.

The family visited Nelson over the weekend, where Ellen was given an orientation of her new school surrounds and attended a bonfire under the stars with other students.

Phil has written to more than 20 MPs in the hope of gaining high level support to keep Salisbury's doors open.

Consultation on the proposed closure of the school is set to finish on August 12.

If the decision is made to close Salisbury, the school board will have the opportunity to make further arguments in support of the school staying open.

Salisbury School board of trustees chairman John Kane has called the latest announcement "short sighted" and blamed the IWS programme for the drop in roll.

"From a school averaging 80 students in the years leading up to 2012 to just nine this year shows the sinking lid effect of the IWS.

"Despite our efforts to work positively with the ministry and provide solutions, we have been unable to do anything about our enrolments or enrolment process, which has been altered so that any enrolments are channelled through the IWS."