Trick...we encountered this situation when our parents went to bat to get aides put in our 25+ first grade classes. They put aides into 3 of the 4 classes. The one other class already had an aide for a special needs child so they did not hire an aide for that class. Well, when the mother of the child with the special needs found out that they were planning on using her child's aide to help out in that class she went ballistic and went after the BOE. Since the aide in that class was there for her child she would not tolerate them using her child's aide for the other students as well and she had the law on her side and ultimately they ended up having to hire an aide for that class. So this will only work if the parent of the child with the aide is accepting of it.
try to get your kid in a class with a child with special needs....diabetes, physically disabled mildly of course, aspergers or downs syndrome, or autistic mild etc etc. in our state, a class with even a MILDLY disabled child gets $$$$$ from state for a full time AIDE. my child is in such a class and its WONDERFUL, all kids benefit.
kind of anti discriminatory discrimination, but they play games wtih us, the admin, so you do the same.
I'd check at your state department of ed's website. Be forewarned though--I can't imagine you'll find any LAWS. Recommendations maybe. It's hard to find laws governing this--it would be very hard to enforce. Let's just say you're one kid over--now you have to split into two 13 or 14 kid classes? What if you don't have a free room? What if there's no money in the budget to pay for an aide--let alone a bona fide teacher?
Common sense says smaller is better. I looked into all of this a few years ago when my son's kindergarten class was 27 strong (and still is in 4th grade!). Studies show it--smaller class size is more beneficial. When you get into large group numbers (above 18) it becomes the herd mentality to govern it--sink or swim. The teacher just doesn't have time to make sure everyone is getting the help they need--unless they are VERY dedicated and willing to help out and not get paid for their time by staying in a lunch or after school.
However--I also found out that it's just more than small class size. It's also about quality instruction. For example--Japan--average class size--40 kids. ONE teacher. NO aides. And they're basically kicking our as@es. A lot of studies have also shown that small class sizes with poor instructors is worse than having a large class with a quality teacher. In my son's school--large class sizes with mediocore instruction--the average and above do well--the borderline and low performers are on their own.
Yes, that will added to my list of questions for the people in Admin. I really want to find out what the exact/law? what ever here in MICH.It is way too many and I believe she(both kinder. teachers ) has no help other than parents.
We have had problems with our classroom sizes for some time now. When my oldest daughter was in Kindergarten a few years back they had 27 kids in that classroom with an aid. My youngest daughter is in first grade now, they had 25 kids per class with no aids. A large group of parents went to a BOE meeting a raised holy hell and got aids put in those classrooms. So while I cannot give you an answer in regards to Michigans laws the bottom line is 27 kids is way to many. An aid will help, but it is still too many kids. I can tell you from experience that "The squeaky wheel gets the oil". If your BOE can get away with it because no one is saying anything they will try to get away with it. In order to get anything done to better the situation you will need to go to them with other parents and complain. You can also send them letters as well. But, in most cases if you do nothing, they will do nothing.
