18. The provisions of Schedule 2 to the Act shall not apply in the case of any grant-maintained or grant-maintained special school, as the case may be, where—
(a)proposals under section 267 or 268 of the Education Act 1996 have been published in respect of the discontinuance of a grant-maintained school and have been approved, or adopted, as the case may be, under section 269 of that Act and the date of discontinuance with respect to the school is on or before 1st September 1999;
(b)the Secretary of State has given notice under section 272 of that Act to the governing body of a grant-maintained school or, under that section as applied to grant-maintained special schools by the 1994 Regulations, to the governing body of a grant-maintained special school, indicating that the funding authority’s duty to maintain the school will cease on a specified date which is on or before 31st March 1999; or
(c)notice of proposals under section 339 of the Education Act 1996 has been served in respect of the discontinuance of a grant-maintained special school and the proposals have been approved under section 340 of that Act or, as the case may be, adopted pursuant to provisions of section 269 of that Act as applied to those proposals by virtue of the 1994 Regulations and the date of discontinuance with respect to the school is on or before 1st September 1999.