The B.C. Education Ministry discriminates against learning-disabled students when it fails to give them proper support in the public school system, the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal ruled Wednesday.

In a decision arising from the troubles of a young boy in the mid-1990s, the tribunal ordered the ministry to provide full funding for the education of severely learning-disabled students and to monitor districts to ensure they deliver the necessary service.

The decision is a victory for Rick Moore, a North Vancouver father who filed the complaint years ago after watching his dyslexic son, Jeff, struggle for four years in a public school.

"It's a wonderful Christmas present," Moore said of the 308-page ruling that has implications for all public schools but not private schools.

"We're walking on air," Moore said.

His lawyer, Frances Kelly of the Community Legal Assistance Society, said the ruling is also a victory for thousands of children with severe learning disabilities throughout B.C.

"This is a significant victory that ensures that severe learning-disabled students have equal access to education," she said.

Education Minister Shirley Bond refused to comment. The ministry issued a statement saying it was still reviewing the decision and noted it has 60 days to file an appeal with the courts.

The tribunal said the ministry and North Vancouver school district discriminated against Jeff based on mental ability when it closed a special diagnostic centre for learning-disabled students in 1994.

The controversial decision was made by the cash-strapped district to save $292,500, just weeks after Jeff was designated as a special-needs student and referred to the centre for help.

Without the centre, special help for Jeff was limited to 30 or 40 minutes three times a week at his neighbourhood school, Braemar elementary. He was still unable to read by Grade 3.

Eventually, Braemar teachers told Rick and Michelle Moore they would have to send Jeff to private school, and they followed that advice, transferring him to Kenneth Gordon School, despite its hefty tuition. The Burnaby school's program is designed to meet the needs of children with specific learning disabilities.

In her ruling, tribunal chairwoman Heather MacNaughton noted public schools are required by law to provide an education for all students to the point of undue hardship.

"It would be only in the rarest of circumstances, which I am satisfied do not exist here, that the failure to provide appropriate supports and accommodations to a vulnerable group could be justified on the basis of cost," she wrote.

The tribunal ordered the ministry and the district to reimburse the Moores for tuition they paid during the nine years Jeff attended private school, and other out-of-pocket costs.

As well, they were ordered to give Jeff -- now 19, a recent B.C. Institute of Technology graduate and an apprentice plumber -- $10,000 for injury to dignity.

MacNaughton said Jeff's story is one of personal success, but added that he suffered unnecessarily because of the school's failure to identify his problem early and provide sufficient learning support.

The personal and social costs occasioned by a failure to provide adequate services to [severely learning disabled] students are incalculable," she added.

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PROVISIONS FOR SEVERELY DISABLED STUDENTS

The B.C. human rights tribunal has ordered the B.C. education ministry to provide the following within one year:

- Full funding for all severely learning disabled students.
- Mechanisms for ensuring that services in schools are appropriate.
- Guarantees that all districts have early intervention programs and a range of services for severely disabled students.