Last Thursday, principal Peter Heffernan told the Journal Berengarra had entered a partnership to share the site of the Hays International School in Box Hill South.

"It has an oval, a gym and plenty of classrooms to accommodate our students.

"We have also found a partner in HIC that is sympathetic to the special needs of our students and to the vision of our school."

An independent school for 35 teenagers with social and behavioural difficulties, Berengarra had spent the past four years looking for a new home.

It had attempted to lease the former Monash primary and secondary school sites in Notting Hill but was knocked back when the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development refused to make the land available in 2009 or 2010.

Last October, Berengarra offered to buy the former primary school site but was informed by the DEECD it was worth about $3million and the school's case did not constitute "exceptional circumstances".

Earlier last year, the school secured a five-year lease to move to the former secondary school site, next to the former primary school.

However, the school was unable to find a guarantor to secure the bank loan and DEECD offered to terminate the lease without penalty.

Faced with closure late last year, the school was able to secure a 12-month extension of its lease at its Glen Waverley site, but it had to turn away students because it had no room and its future after 2009 was uncertain.

At the new site, the school will be able to take on an extra 15 students. It will use a grant from the Federal Government's Building the Educational Revolution fund to prepare for 2010.

Mr Heffernan said HIC had been "wonderful in their efforts in reaching an agreement in only three months".

"It was a sign of their willingness to help students with special needs. We spent over three years negotiating with the education department but were unable to find a workable solution despite two-thirds of our students being referrals from state schools.

"We can now plan for the future. We are taking enrolments for a new group starting next term, and already we have half the places filled from our waiting list, such is the demand for a school such as ours.

"It would have been a tragedy if we had had to close."