arents, educators and doctors agree that children with learning differences are running up against a scarcity of resources.

?Given our affluent society it is surprising that there is not more services or schools for those with learning differences,? said Jonelle Smith, president of Bermuda Overcoming Learning Disabilities/Differences (BOLD).

?My wish would be to have a special school catering to the needs of students with learning differences in small classes. Ideally, Government should pay for the building but the school would be privately run.

?The school would be expensive but children who cannot afford it should be given a credit by Government.?

There are a limited number of facilities in Bermuda that test for learning differences, provide therapy, and offer tutoring, but the majority are private and cost money.

Some families struggle to meet the costs, according to educators and doctors.

?For an evaluation at the Reading Clinic it costs from $1,000 to $2,000, but health insurance won?t pay for it,? said paediatrician Dr. Bente Lundh.

President and chief executive officer of The Argus Group, Gerald Simons, said: ?We offer policy to cover health primarily. Matters dealing with education are excluded. We are more comfortable paying doctors bills than educational matters because we are more experienced with those types of services.?

?It?s a catch-22 because they think it?s an educational problem if it is described as a learning disability,? said Dr. Lundh.

Getting children tested for learning disabilities seems to be a struggle due to lack of resources and funding.

?It is difficult for some parents to get their children tested here. Parents need to be proactive to the point of being pushy to get their children tested. For example, I had a nine-year-old patient who was doing well in school but was an extremely slow reader. The school would not test her and told her to go to the Reading Clinic. Unfortunately, her mother could not afford it,? said Dr. Lundh.

She explained her nine-year-old patient?s situation: ?It is a case of potential versus achieving. The child was achieving average or just above average in school but her potential could be greater if she mastered her reading.

?In a way the public school system has more resources than the private system but they are overwhelmed with the numbers of students that have learning disabilities.?

The Reading Clinic does provide grants to people who cannot afford certain services.

?Last year we gave a total of $80,000 in grants for tutoring. About 50 percent of children and adults that come to us need financial assistance,? said director of The Reading Clinic, Dr. Janet Kemp.

The Bermuda Resource Guide, written by Catherine Harriott said: ?One of the reasons it is so difficult for teachers and education officials to give the necessary help for a learning disabled child, is that it is an invisible handicap. If a child is blind, there is no question that the Education Department will follow through with all the necessary aid for the child.?

Dr. Kemp said: ?Once we?ve identified the gaps the question is ? do we try to broaden options here or give money to send the child away to get the help they need??

?Where we have the greatest gap is with having such a small community. We are unable to provide certain settings that students need.?

Many families are moving away or sending their children away to get the help they need according to Dr. Kemp.

?It is a stretch for families to consider sending their child away, clearly outside the range of possibility for some.?

The LandMark East School in Wolfville, Nova Scotia appears to be the school of choice for many parents who do decide to send their children overseas.

Headmaster Tim Moore told that there are 15 Bermudian students enrolled at the school and there were another 27 inquiries from the Island during one month last year alone.

LandMark, a boarding and day school with an enrolment at about 50, caters to students with learning differences and attention deficit disorder. Parents and educators remain hopeful that there will be a similar school in Bermuda one day.

In the past attempts have been made to create a special school and to determine what the demand would be.

Dr. Julie Dunstan and Angela Fubler conducted a needs assessment which began in June, 2001 and concluded in August, 2003.

Dr. Dunstan, an educational consultant, said: ?I was asked to explore the issues for a special school and to see whether there was support for having one here. I didn?t find there to be overwhelming support. But it may have changed by now.?

Ms Fubler, president of Bermuda Consultants Limited (BERCON), who did the study with Dr. Dunstan, said: ?I wouldn?t say there wasn?t a demand at the time but we did not get access to the information we needed to show that there was a need for a special school.

?The needs assessment was not really fair because it was not representative of the need or demand in the community.

?There was a discussion within the community and Government about what kind of alternative needs school Bermuda would need. Some public school principles said that they could manage the students with learning differences but that they had trouble with those that were physically challenged. So, Government opened a school for the physically challenged not for those with learning differences.?