As a parent of two children with learning challenges, I found myself deep in the Vancouver School Board’s appeals process.
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How to lodge an education appeal in British Columbia
Filing an appeal in the Vancouver School District is not for the faint of heart. It’s like falling on glass slowly. Emotionally draining by design. But for some families, it is the only path left. I’ve filed several myself. Sometimes, my child got…
Early on, I heard officials say our children would be supported with “inclusive” classroom resources. In reality, every step felt like an uphill battle. For example, during our Level 1 appeal meeting the board’s own summary noted that I repeatedly warned the district it was “changing the goal posts” on my children’s supports and that families must “advocate on an ongoing basis” just to maintain basic help. I even asked how to appeal the initial decision, but “did not receive the information” and had to press on to pursue a formal dispute resolution process.
When the Associate Superintendent finally issued a decision letter, it confirmed the original removal of supports. It offered only a brief extension of intervention and politely reminded me I had just 10 days to seek a Level 2 appeal if I wanted. The message was clear: families face a narrow, fast timeline and must do the legwork.
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The problem with the appeals process
When something goes wrong at school—when a child is excluded, harmed, or unsupported—families are told to “work it out with the school first.” That sounds reasonable on paper. But in practice, it’s vague, unstructured, and often retraumatising. I’ve gone through the Vancouver School…
Meanwhile, the VSB’s spending paints a troubling picture. District documents show that in 2023/24 the board paid Harris & Company – a labour/litigation law firm – $3,204,911 for legal services www2.gov.bc.ca. (By contrast, the previous year’s SOFI shows only $799,700 paid to Harris & Comedia.vsb.bc.ca.)
In fact, the 2024/25 draft budget earmarks about $7.66 million for legal and litigation costs media.vsb.bc.ca. These are dollars that could have gone into classrooms. As one recent report noted, this pattern of spending on lawyers “pulls funds away that would have been used to improve student well-being and success” vsb.bc.ca.
Even as legal bills climb, the district’s actual spending on inclusion lags behind. In the 2023/24 school year the VSB received about $70.9 million in supplemental inclusive-education funding. Yet budget documents show it budgeted roughly $99.25 million for inclusive ed salaries, benefits and services – and actually spent only about $96.43 million media.vsb.bc.ca. In other words, nearly $2.8 million of inclusion money went unspent vancouverdpac.org media.vsb.bc.ca. Parent advocates called this “alarming,” noting it meant the budget fell below even the provincial grants intended for those students vancouverdpac.org.
This disconnect matters because in practice it affects students.
At our Level 2 appeal hearing, district staff insisted the classroom was already “supportive and inclusive” and that the extra staff I requested were simply “additive” to an environment that was fine. Yet our own notes tell a different story: when the substitute teacher took over after winter break, my son’s distress worsened, my daughter was “deeply stressed,” and staff merely normalised troubling outbursts.
I had to explain how without consistent support, my children were being left behind. The official records even quote me saying that UIP (Urgent Intervention Program) help was suddenly withdrawn after Christmas and that our family was forced into constant advocacy to keep any accommodations in place.
The Centre Scolaire Francophone (CSF) court case is one reason for these legal expenses. The board press release notes it was “substantially successful” in defending a CSF lawsuit over school site transfers, but cautioned that “litigation is costly and time consuming, and pulls funds away” from students vsb.bc.cavsb.bc.ca. It’s hard not to see an appearance of delay tactics when families like mine are told to wait in appeals, while the district pours millions into outside counsel.
In the end, the facts speak for themselves. Publicly available financial and meeting documents show a district spending heavily on lawyers while hundreds of thousands in inclusion grants sit unused.
Our experience echoes this contrast: I keep hearing the VSB’s public pledges about inclusion, but I spend hours navigating appeals to keep the supports promised in writing. Without naming names, I’ll just say it feels like the system’s priorities are misaligned. When funds and staff are scarce, parents deserve a prompt, clear process – not jargon, delays, and a shifting of support plans. Is the board’s action matching its message? Or are dollars destined for our kids ending up in lawyer’s pockets instead?
