Aps elementary school - switching classes mid year

[Anonymous]

Our child is in 1st grade — his class has had a lot of behavioral issues (his teacher’s words, not mine). They are shuffling the classes mid year (starting tomorrow) to try to adjust class makeup and help some of the issues.

Has anyone seen this before? Did it help? Our kid mostly follows directions in the class but definitely falls into bad behavior when he wants to mirror his friends. I am hoping this will settle things about for everyone but is that ridiculously optimistic thinking?

[Anonymous]

Yes. Something happened and they need to separate kids. They told you a cover up story.

I have no inside info, but have never heard of a complete class switch up mid year. Ever.

Be optimistic and hope for the best. It doesn’t sound like your child was involved in any major trouble.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our child is in 1st grade — his class has had a lot of behavioral issues (his teacher’s words, not mine). They are shuffling the classes mid year (starting tomorrow) to try to adjust class makeup and help some of the issues.

Has anyone seen this before? Did it help? Our kid mostly follows directions in the class but definitely falls into bad behavior when he wants to mirror his friends. I am hoping this will settle things about for everyone but is that ridiculously optimistic thinking?

In a normal year, I doubt anything like this would happen, especially in 1st grade where the school already knew the kids and the dynamics. But this year, the classes probably ended up so unbalanced that it's just not manageable. I would assume that the teachers/admin have tried other strategies and this is the only solution that might work. If this was a conflict between 2 kids then they would just switch a few kids. But this kind of reshuffle signals to me that the issues in your sons class were really really bad.

[Anonymous]

They switched up some kids in our kindergarten class in APS. In that instance it was parents not caring for a particular teacher. She had a certain style that struck some as abrasive. It seemed that everyone was better off after the switch.

I wouldn't worry too much about it.

[Anonymous]

I have heard it happening, but only when things are really bad.

[Anonymous]

OP here - i heard a lot of stories from my kid over the past few months but wasn’t sure how accurate they were. I guess pretty accurate…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes. Something happened and they need to separate kids. They told you a cover up story.

I have no inside info, but have never heard of a complete class switch up mid year. Ever.

Be optimistic and hope for the best. It doesn’t sound like your child was involved in any major trouble.

I would agree that it must be something like what PP said.

We had some children move classes when one was bullying/touching others inappropriately. The parents had enough and I don't blame them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes. Something happened and they need to separate kids. They told you a cover up story.

I have no inside info, but have never heard of a complete class switch up mid year. Ever.

Be optimistic and hope for the best. It doesn’t sound like your child was involved in any major trouble.

This. I’ve never heard of this. I know people Who have asked to switch and were denied. I’d guess a kid assaulted another kid and they have to separate them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. Something happened and they need to separate kids. They told you a cover up story.

I have no inside info, but have never heard of a complete class switch up mid year. Ever.

Be optimistic and hope for the best. It doesn’t sound like your child was involved in any major trouble.

This. I’ve never heard of this. I know people Who have asked to switch and were denied. I’d guess a kid assaulted another kid and they have to separate them.

Op would be very aware if it was something like an assault. There have been two occasions my son was involved in an episode like that at school— one time he was strangled by a sn kid in his class, the other time he was the “bully” by association when one of the kids in his friend group beat up another kid. Both times I heard from the school that day, and it was a big deal, not just an email from the teacher. There were no kids moved in and out of classes for that.
My younger daughter did have her class moved around in k— that was because the classes were unbalanced numbers wise— one class had ten kids, anc the other had more than 20. I would bet it’s more along those lines.

[Anonymous]

If your child is at Claremont or Key, they switch up homerooms mid year. If your child starts in Spanish at the start of the year, they would now start the day in English.

If there are any concerns about the make up of each class, they would address that it this time and move some students around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your child is at Claremont or Key, they switch up homerooms mid year. If your child starts in Spanish at the start of the year, they would now start the day in English.

If there are any concerns about the make up of each class, they would address that it this time and move some students around.

They just flip if they start their day with their Spanish or English teacher right? They will have already had that teacher this year, just in the afternoon and the kids will all be the same. This is different- sounds like they are taking all the students in the grade and making new class lists.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your child is at Claremont or Key, they switch up homerooms mid year. If your child starts in Spanish at the start of the year, they would now start the day in English.

If there are any concerns about the make up of each class, they would address that it this time and move some students around.

They just flip if they start their day with their Spanish or English teacher right? They will have already had that teacher this year, just in the afternoon and the kids will all be the same. This is different- sounds like they are taking all the students in the grade and making new class lists.

At Claremont they are moving from kids from one homeroom to the “opposite” class to balance the class. The kids will still have the same teachers, just a new make up of each class.

[Anonymous]

Something must have happened most likely another parent request. When I was a kid in 2nd grade they abruptly moved me to another class saying it was about balancing the rooms. Come to find out they hand picked mild mannered children from a kind teachers homeroom to move to a poor tempered teachers room. I hated it,but the school had so many compliants they thought this was a solution. In hindsight they should have fired the teacher as she was agressive no exaggeration, pulled kids up by their shirts if you talked in lunch line. This was 1987 when coropral punishment was allowed at school.

Another thought is APS tends to put all IEP in the same class, and do to all the challenges this year bought with learning loss etc the teacher may just be overwhelmed and they are spreading out the higher need children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Something must have happened most likely another parent request. When I was a kid in 2nd grade they abruptly moved me to another class saying it was about balancing the rooms. Come to find out they hand picked mild mannered children from a kind teachers homeroom to move to a poor tempered teachers room. I hated it,but the school had so many compliants they thought this was a solution. In hindsight they should have fired the teacher as she was agressive no exaggeration, pulled kids up by their shirts if you talked in lunch line. This was 1987 when coropral punishment was allowed at school.

Another thought is APS tends to put all IEP in the same class, and do to all the challenges this year bought with learning loss etc the teacher may just be overwhelmed and they are spreading out the higher need children.

My kids is in an APS 3rd grade with 9 IEP kids. That's about 5 too many. I feel very sorry for the teacher but she seems to be managing...I hope she's ok on the inside.