Maximum PK class size / student:teacher ratio?
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Anonymous
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My DS is in a mixed PK class that grew after the first day of school (and inexplicably, even seemed to grow even a little bit more after count day?). He's having some behavior struggles - and in a brief hallway discussion with the teacher, she admitted that they were having trouble with so many kids. My naive view of the situation is that the school overreached on how many students to accept and didn't get enough staff to cover the size of the student body.
Is there a max class size / student:teacher ratio dictated by OSSE for PK3? PK4? K? What about for mixed classes? I couldn't find anything on their website. |
Anonymous
| I think it's 15 for PK3 and 20 for PK4, with a teacher and an aid. I don't think there are limits on K. I don't know how the limits work for mixed-age classrooms. |
dcmom
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| For DCPS, the max is 16 for PK3 (15 plus 1 from Early Stages), 18 for mixed (17 plus 1 from Early Stages), and 21 for PK4 (20 plus 1 from early stages). OP, is your child at a charter? I don't think there are any limits for charters. |
Anonymous
OP here. Yes, at a charter. The class size is over 25 with a teacher and an aide. |
dcmom
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Then unfortunately I don't think that you have anything you can cite. Is it Montessori? I've heard they typically have 25-30 per classroom. |
Anonymous
Is it Montessori? |
Anonymous
It is. Though unfortunately, a rather unbalanced age distribution tilted towards the 3-year olds...which is the issue. |
Anonymous
| I looked into this. I called OSSE. There is no max ratio for charters. This was a couple years ago. |
Anonymous
| Crazy that charters can have a worse ratio than is legally allowed for daycare centers or home-based care. In DC, the ratio for 3 year olds is 1:8 and for 4 year olds it's 1:10 according to http://osse.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/osse/publication/attachments/Providing%20Child%20Care%20FAQs%207-18-11A.pdf |
Anonymous
DCPS would not allow this and, if your charter is getting Title I funds I'm not sure this would fly with federal Head Start regulations, which are "blended" into the early childhood education in DC. It might be worth contacting the early childhood education office in DC to inquire about this. I'm not sure how exactly this is organized. They may just be overseeing DCPS but I can't imagine that DC would get a free pass on overseeing federal regulations (if class sizes is part of those regulatory binders). |
Anonymous
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16:17 again. When I called OSSE about this, I was told that if the charter had a certain grant, then class restrictions would kick in if I recall correctly.
So there were no standards for charters but there were for aftercare because that is hold care. Call OSSe and see I anything is different ther days. I was kind of floored when I found out about the lack of ratios required. |
Anonymous
| That is insane! Even our Title 1 DCPS EOTP had 20 or fewer kids (with a teacher and aide) in PS3 and PK4. |
Anonymous
| Troll alert! |
Anonymous
| Why is this a troll? |
Anonymous
I never did understand this! Public/charter schools are exempt from many of the licensing requirements for equivalent age groups at child care centers, like child:adult ratios and minimum outdoor time. It's a shame. |