The parents of 10 Montreal children have scored a victory in their fight for access to an English-language education.

An administrative tribunal with Quebec Superior Court ruled in favour of the nine families on Thursday, whose children — since kindergarten — have been attending four unsubsidized private schools.

The tribunal granted them a safeguard order to allow their children to continue attending their education at the high school level, which receives government funding.

Quebec's Education Ministry had denied the parents' request to switch to the publicly funded, system, citing the province's language education law, Bill 104.

Last fall, the Supreme Court ruled that Bill 104 was unconstitutional. The Quebec government argued that since the ruling has not yet been applied, the students could not attend subsidized English schools.

The tribunal's judge ruled the reason given by the province wasn't good enough to deny the children their constitutional right.

The Quebec government is now asking the judge to stay Thursday's ruling, saying the Supreme Court has given until October to come up with an alternative to Bill 104.