Reduced preschool ratios - what's your comfort level?

[Anonymous]

For the 3-5 set, what classroom sizes or student-teacher ratios would make you feel comfortable enough to send your kid to preschool? Our preschool plans to open full-time in the fall but hasn't announced whether they will reduce class sizes.

Or, if you've already sent your 3-5 year old to daycare/preschool, any insights on ideal class sizes in the covid-era?

[Anonymous]

My kid is 4 and I'm so grateful to have childcare. Shortened hours to permit the same teacher to be with the class all day. Some of the classes are 4 kids to a teacher. My kid's class is 6 kids to a teacher.

[Anonymous]

Pp here. All kids get temp checked each morning at dropoff. No parents allowed into the space, they bring the kids out at pick up.

[Anonymous]

OP again. Some preschools reporting classroom sizes will be up to 15-20 kids, close to legal ratio under Va law. Anyone experiencing that now?

[Anonymous]

Ours is now 10 students per class. 50% reduction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid is 4 and I'm so grateful to have childcare. Shortened hours to permit the same teacher to be with the class all day. Some of the classes are 4 kids to a teacher. My kid's class is 6 kids to a teacher.

Why are you proud of that ratio at age four? When your child enters kindergarten, the ratio will be 1:27. He or she will have trouble vying for the attention of one teacher against 26 other kids. No state or county ratio is less than 1:10 for a four year old for this reason. Right now, your child is vying for the attention of one teacher against five kids in a 1:6. In MD these are toddler ratios. You need to rethink your pride.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is 4 and I'm so grateful to have childcare. Shortened hours to permit the same teacher to be with the class all day. Some of the classes are 4 kids to a teacher. My kid's class is 6 kids to a teacher.

Why are you proud of that ratio at age four? When your child enters kindergarten, the ratio will be 1:27. He or she will have trouble vying for the attention of one teacher against 26 other kids. No state or county ratio is less than 1:10 for a four year old for this reason. Right now, your child is vying for the attention of one teacher against five kids in a 1:6. In MD these are toddler ratios. You need to rethink your pride.

WTF.

The ratios aren’t to prepare kids for the next level! It’s the maximum the state has determined is safe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is 4 and I'm so grateful to have childcare. Shortened hours to permit the same teacher to be with the class all day. Some of the classes are 4 kids to a teacher. My kid's class is 6 kids to a teacher.

Why are you proud of that ratio at age four? When your child enters kindergarten, the ratio will be 1:27. He or she will have trouble vying for the attention of one teacher against 26 other kids. No state or county ratio is less than 1:10 for a four year old for this reason. Right now, your child is vying for the attention of one teacher against five kids in a 1:6. In MD these are toddler ratios. You need to rethink your pride.

WTF.

The ratios aren’t to prepare kids for the next level! It’s the maximum the state has determined is safe.

PP doesn’t seem proud at all wth. Also not all K is that big - DS had 19 and was fine after coming from a 8:1 ratio. This is such a weird comment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is 4 and I'm so grateful to have childcare. Shortened hours to permit the same teacher to be with the class all day. Some of the classes are 4 kids to a teacher. My kid's class is 6 kids to a teacher.

Why are you proud of that ratio at age four? When your child enters kindergarten, the ratio will be 1:27. He or she will have trouble vying for the attention of one teacher against 26 other kids. No state or county ratio is less than 1:10 for a four year old for this reason. Right now, your child is vying for the attention of one teacher against five kids in a 1:6. In MD these are toddler ratios. You need to rethink your pride.

WTF.

The ratios aren’t to prepare kids for the next level! It’s the maximum the state has determined is safe.

That PP is a time traveler from 6 months ago and has not yet realized we are in a pandemic.

[Anonymous]

This is PP with 4 y/o in a 6:1 ratio class....

Not prideful... I said I'm *grateful* to have childcare during these difficult times. DH and I were losing our minds trying to balance parenting and working fulltime.

I think my daycare is taking reasonable measures to limit virus exposure while providing essential childcare. I am not overly concerned about my child's preparation for kindergarten. It will be fine.

[Anonymous]

10 max

[Anonymous]

Currently DD is in a PreK class with 8 kids and 2 teachers, and I'm grateful to the school for reopening and taking all the measures they can to keep everyone safe (temp checks, social distancing, wearing masks, no patents in building, etc).

[Anonymous]

Our original preschool went from 16:2 to 8:2, meaning that to keep tuition the same, they had to cut number of days in half. Nobody went for that and they made the decision to close earlier this week due to low enrollment.

We then enrolled in another preschool who told me it will be 12:2 (usually 16:2) which allows daily attendance (no word on any tuition hikes to make up the lost tuition). I'm not sure if there's a regulation for that but many places I called seemed to be doing 12:2. I worry there's going to be a problem if we (VA) goes back to phase 2 with max 10 people per room.

[Anonymous]

Our son's in 8:2. Parents can't go past gate, temp checks + hand sanitizer at the gates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pp here. All kids get temp checked each morning at dropoff. No parents allowed into the space, they bring the kids out at pick up.

Same for my kid’s preschool. Parents need to report their temps too at drop off. The limit on number of people per classroom is 15, per MD Dept of Health. My kid’s class has fewer than that — I want to say about 6 kids and 1 teacher.