The Greater Victoria School Board, in a move that has divided trustees, will ask the B.C. government to abolish legal limits on the number of special-needs students in classrooms.

The board and the Victoria Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils plan to write a joint letter urging the government to repeal sections of the School Act that allow only three students with special needs per class.

The limits, which were introduced in 2006 as Bill 33, can be exceeded if a school principal consults with the teacher, and the superintendent and principal agree that classroom learning conditions are appropriate.

Board chairwoman Peg Orcherton said a majority of trustees believe that the law discriminates against special-needs children.

"What do you do if there's an extra child?" she said. "Every child has a right to go to school in the public system, and limiting their access goes against their rights."

She said the board sides with the confederation, which argues that Bill 33 has failed to improve learning environments, reduce class sizes or free up more money for students with special needs.

"You're discriminating for no purpose," confederation president John Bird said. "Bill 33 hasn't generated any additional funding. There's a complete fallacy in the position in my view."

But trustee Deborah Nohr, a teacher, said the situation in B.C. classrooms would be far worse without limits on the numbers of students with special needs in each classroom. "If there were no limits and no restrictions and no parameters, it would be an even more rapid deterioration in the system," she said.

Nohr said she agrees that children with special needs have a right to attend their neighbourhood school. But she said that doesn't mean there should be five or six students with such needs in a classroom, which would undermine the learning environment for all students.

Nohr said if there are significant numbers of students with special needs, the government should hire more teachers and reduce class sizes to accommodate those students, not overload existing classes and teachers.

She said the limits imposed under Bill 33, while imperfect, offer the only real mechanism for highlighting the issue. "It's a law that provides at least a basis for limits and accountability," she said. "Without it, I can't even imagine."

The board majority, however, favours lobbying for more money rather than imposing what it views as arbitrary limits.

"If today's children need more support, then today's school system needs to provide it," vice-chairwoman Bev Horsman said. "But we don't approach a problem by limiting access."

Orcherton, Horsman, Tom Ferris and Michael McEvoy, all veteran trustees, voted in support of scrapping the limits at a recent education policy meeting. Nohr, Diane McNally and Catherine Alpha, all current or former teachers, opposed the move. Edith Loring-Kuhanga and Elaine Leonard were absent.

The issue highlights an ongoing divide on the board between veterans and recently elected trustees backed by the teachers' union. The veterans view the teachers' contingent as too closely aligned with the Greater Victoria Teachers' Association while the teachers believe veteran trustees have been too quiet and complacent in the face of persistent cuts to education.

McNally said class limits, while flawed, were an attempt to protect learning environments for children. She questioned the wisdom of removing that safeguard in the vague and "idealistic" hope that the government will begin supporting the needs of all students - something, she said, that is unlikely to happen.

"I mean who has thought this through?" she said.

"Idealism is wonderful, but look around; we don't live in an idealistic world."

lkines@timescolonist.com