By Thomas McGuigan BBC News Online Scotland

Local deals have now been done to resolve the pay dispute in more than half of the council areas.

As staff in Edinburgh are balloted on an offer, BBC News Online Scotland examines the problems faced by those attending special needs schools.

Alyson Bathgate (left) says Karyn faces a difficult time

Alyson Bathgate believes her 14-year-old daughter is one of those who has been forgotten in the coverage of the nursery nurses dispute.

Karyn has learning difficulties and attends a special needs school in Edinburgh.

But she has been forced to stay at home during the strike and Alyson is angry about the lack of publicity for families facing a similar plight.

The 47-year-old said special needs schools had not been made exempt from the strike, despite the appeals of concerned parents.

"What people fail to understand is that this strike affects children as old as 17. It's not just three and four-year-olds," she said.

There are eight other pupils in Karyn's class at St Crispin's and 65 in the school.

They have been forced to stay at home as the nursery nurses who help the teachers and classroom assistants have been on the picket line.

Being at home constantly for eight or nine weeks can damage the family unit Alyson Bathgate

Nursery nurses in Edinburgh are voting on whether to accept a new pay deal and end their strike.

The ballot follows talks earlier this week involving the trade union, Unison, the city council and the arbitration service Acas.

Alyson said: "If the nursery nurses would have asked for our support at the start of the strike we would have been happy to assist them.

"But despite our appeals they have not made special needs schools exempt from the current strike and to be honest us parents are too tired to campaign for them."

Alyson said nursery nurses and Unison did not want to publicise a special needs case because it would cost them public support.

'Makes me mad'

"But the special needs parents are a powerful pressure group and we have been urging the council to do all it can to resolve the strike," she said.

"The lack of publicity makes me mad. Nursery nurses deserve to be paid for the job they do, but I cannot understand how they can stand on the picket line when they know the care my daughter and other children at St Crispin's need.

"Karyn knows that she hasn't been in school regularly but she cannot understand why she is being kept at home.

Nursery nurses say employers have undervalued their work

"I wouldn't really know what is going on with the strike unless I read the newspapers. The school sent us out a letter stating that industrial action meant Karyn could not come to school."

Alyson does not work, so does not have the problems of trying to juggle work commitments during the strike.

But she added: "You have to understand that Karyn being in school is respite for me and it's the same for other parents of children there.

"Karyn needs constant care. When she is off school we cannot just treat it as a holiday when my husband is at work.

"We can't just go to the museum as Karyn would get bored after about 10 minutes. She is too old for the swing park and even little things like having an ice cream are difficult because I have to feed her.

"Families are being placed in extremely stressful situations and I know of some mothers who have been in tears.

Twenty three out of 32 local authorities have struck local deals

"Being at home constantly for eight or nine weeks can damage the family unit."

Alyson said she was hopeful that the ballot would end the strike and see the situation return to normal.

Until agreement is struck, supply teachers are being drafted into St Crispin's so Karyn and her classmates can attend school more often over the next few weeks.

"When the supply teachers were coming to the school last week they were faced by the nursery nurses on the picket line," Alyson said.

"I support nursery nurses in their call for better pay and conditions, but they must realise the damage this is doing to children with special needs and their families."

In February, Unison decided it would not exempt special needs provision and a spokesman for the union repeated the position, saying if all nurseries with special needs pupils were exempted there would be no strike at all.

He said: "Until the new offer last week, the council had been prepared to sit the strike out but we rarely hear it being criticised for the effects on children or failing to bring the dispute to an end - or indeed for paying the ridiculously low wages that caused this dispute.

"The whole future of early years care and education is at stake in this dispute.