The Department for Education has agreed to fund a new special school for 120 autistic children, which could open in Malvern in 2026.
However, the county council’s report forecasts more children will be need to be offered expensive independent provision, inside or outside the county.
One option under consideration is to ask existing special schools in the county to accept more children.
But ahead of the cabinet meeting, governors at Fort Royal primary, a special school in Worcester wrote to warn it of a “capacity crisis”.
“We can’t do that. We cannot grow to 300 pupils,” said Robyn Norfolk, the school’s safeguarding governor.
“We just don’t have the space, it’s just not safe”.
Ms Norfolk said Fort Royal had already increased its capacity by more than 50% since 2017, by installing mobile classrooms.
To bring class sizes down, she said from September 2024 it would start to reduce the number of pupils.
“Having to turn families away is soul-destroying... the alternative is for the local authority to invest in completely brand, spanking new infrastructure, take brave action, borrow some money and plan for the increase in capacity”.