Russia has been steering ninth-graders toward vocational college instead of regular high school. The country’s top court just ruled that one school went too far by outright refusing a student.

Russia’s Supreme Court — the country’s highest court of general jurisdiction — has ruled that a school unlawfully refused to let a student continue his education after ninth grade. “Successfully completing a general education is not grounds for expulsion,” the court said in its explanation.

The complaint came from Valentina Berseneva, a resident of the Sverdlovsk region, whose son was denied enrollment in the 10th grade because the school organizes those classes around specialized tracks. Berseneva asked that her son be placed in a general-education class instead, the Russian business daily Kommersant said.

Berseneva took the case to court, seeking to have the school director’s order expelling her son upon completion of his studies voided, but three lower courts denied her claim. The Supreme Court’s panel for administrative cases overturned those rulings and declared the order invalid.

The BBC’s Russian Service said in late July that Russian authorities have ramped up pressure on students to enroll in vocational schools after ninth grade rather than continue their studies in school. Attending a vocational or technical school makes it harder to gain admission to a university. Young men also forfeit their deferment from compulsory military service, because it counts as having been used while they were in vocational school.