Highland Council has pledged to help address major issues concerning disability access to Thurso High School.
It has emerged pupils who use wheelchairs have to go round the outside of the Caithness secondary in all weathers to access some classes.
Campaigners maintain this amounts to discrimination on the part of the education authority and are calling for action to improve the provision.
The split level design of the 61-year-old school means that most of it is out of bounds for these pupils. The only accessible upper floor to them is that containing the office above the main entrance.
Caithness Disability Access Panel (CDAP) has joined the school’s parent council in pressing the local authority to take early action to resolve the issue.
School head teacher Hannah Flavell acknowledged the problems when she addressed local councillors at the latest area committee meeting.
She said: “Most of the school is not accessible to someone in a wheelchair. Wheelchair users can have to go right round the outside of the school to get access, in all weathers.”
Parent council chairman Sandy Cumming said action is long overdue.
“We’ve been pushing to get something done on this for some years,” he said.
“We will continue to highlight it to the council but inevitably it all boils down to finding the funding for the stairlifts that are required.”
CDAP is currently seeking funding to carry out a survey of the disability access and toilets in public buildings in schools throughout Caithness.
Committee member Louise Smith, herself a wheelchair user, is in no doubt this would show Thurso High as a major blackspot.
She said: “The school is split level all the way through and there is no access to large parts of it for disabled people.
“I’m sure the staff will make every best endeavour to help but one of the biggest issues for disabled people is exclusion from their peer group.
“It’s not good enough for people to dodge out of it by saying that this is an old building and it would be to costly to do something.”
Highland Council says it has work in hand to address the issue.
A spokesperson said: “There is a budget of £250,000 available to undertake works to improve access and officials are waiting on dates from contractors to visit the site to then provide us with a quote.”