LEGISLATION designed to give thousands of Scottish parents greater choice over where their children go to school could end up restricting their options following a landmark legal ruling.
Campaigning groups last night warned the judgment could make it "significantly more difficult" for families of children with learning difficulties to go to a specialist school of their choice.
The case involves Jessica McArthur, a five-year-old blind girl whose parents want her to go to the Royal Blind School in Edinburgh, rather than Oaklands, a state-funded alternative. In the McArthur's case, the cost of Oaklands is £23,500 a year as opposed to £33,000 for the Royal Blind School.
Lord Glennie ruled at the Court of Session in Edinburgh the existing running costs of the state school should no longer be included in the comparison, leaving only the costs of any additional services required specifically for a child - making the gulf between state and private much wider. Campaigners say parents are now more likely to be refused a place at a private or grant-aided school on the grounds of cost.
Lorraine Dilworth, of ISEA Scotland, an advisory service for parents, said the 2004 Additional Support for Learning Act "was supposed to give these parents rights, but this judgment is taking those rights away".
A spokeswoman for the executive said they could not comment on the case because elements of it had been referred to another tribunal.
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