Is There a Maximum Class Size for 3Rd Grade?

A lot of it depends on how much funding the school is receiving, if a recent referendum or levy has passed/failed, and what kinds of cuts have been made.

35 kids in a classroom is super high. I'm going to guess that the school does not have the funding to hire another teacher to decrease the class load, especially since most teacher contracts/agreements would never allow such a large class unless absolutely necessary.

Yet another reason I homeschool. My daughter's 4th grade class had 29 and it was a zoo, with normal, supposedly gifted kids. HA A zoo!!

I've met a few moms here in the southern California area who have decided to homeschool their children because of the insane classroom sizes that are happening in a lot of the schools (more than 30 students, even for kindergarten!). It's the economy and the fact that most states (especially CA) are broke. They are cutting teachers and increasing classroom sizes in order to make up for the fact that they don't have any money, and the kids are the ones who suffer because of it. Very sad. :-(

I think 35 is a lot.. Although I don't blame money cuts (As private schools educate with less money and get more bang for their buck in doing it) I blame unions.. but apart from that, I know that kids with special needs by law are allowed (as well they should be) to attend regular type classes, that said. I would hope they also give the teacher some help.. IF the school does not, is there a chance that a group of parents can band together and alternate their time (even if just a couple of hours) and come in and help out? even if each parent did it for 2 hours.. I know many work.. but that is why I am wondering IF out of 35 kids, there must be a parent or two that can assist. It's a stretch.. but something to consider..

I wish you the best

this is why its so important for parents to participate in their childs education and spend some time volunteering at school. Our country really needs the volunteers, our school systems suck. I did it from kinder to about 3rd grade while I was a sahm.... it's just good to know what's going on. The mom with the spinning chair kid should be there or have an advocate for him if the school is unable to provide an aide. Things such as this can go completely unnoticed for the entire school year. What are you going to do with this now that you are aware?

35 kids in a class seems enormous! There must be serious financial strains in your school district for this to happen. It differs by school district, there's no "nationally mandated" class size, so your school district probably is doing whatever they can with what they've got. Our school district has a max class size of 28 kids (for elementary school), but our school rarely has more than 22 or 23 kids in the class. I think my daughter's 3rd grade class only has 19 kids. It's too bad there's no aide in the classroom for the special needs child. Again, it's probably due to lack of finances in your school district. My son has special needs and, quite frankly, without the help he's been getting since K (he's in 7th grade now) in school, he'd be MUCH farther behind than he actually is. It's a shame for that child, the teacher who has to cope with 35 kids and all the other kids in the class...

Of course that child needs an aide, but realistically... school districts don't have any money, and there are only so many bake sales the PTA can do. My kids' school has 26 per class right now, and due to further budget cuts, they will go up to 30 next year. The funding for the school librarian and nurse is being cut, so the PTA is doing more fundraisers to keep them on/pay those salaries. We're getting to how life was during the depression, only kids now are not as respectful of authority, parents are not as involved (or supportive of the teachers) as a general rule, and teachers aren't allowed to do as much discipline-wise as they could years ago (I distinctly recall being rapped on the knuckles with a ruler for talking in class!). Anyhow, we are really thinking about private school for our kids next year due to the class sizes and discipline issues, as well as ALL the "extras" being cut out of the curriculum. It's sad.

It varies from state to state and district to district. I currently have 21 3rd graders in my class. Next year I'm expecting 29. Unfortunately, I don't think there is much you can do. Education is not a priority anymore:(

Most school districts employ their own class size "caps" but there are no federal laws on class size or adult to child ratios. I don't know about Oregon, but Washington state doesn't have a state law either.
Most school districts set these "caps" on class size themselves because they negotiate them with the teacher's unions (for those of you blaming unions, they are the only ones fighting for smaller class sizes besides parents). However, since it is negotiated in the teacher contracts, each district is different depending on the amount of money a school district
has. In addition, the union can never negotiate actual caps because that could cause huge expenses for a district. Think about it. If the contract said
no more than 25 kids and the 26th kid showed up, they would have to hire
a new teacher and move a whole bunch of kids to a new classroom mid year!
When numbers go beyond the cap, the teacher usually gets an aide for part of the day. However, when that happened to me last year, my aide was only for one hour a day, so you may have been there when the aide was not.
As for the special needs child. That is suprising. But it depends on a lot of factors. Is he there all day? Or only mainstreamed for part of the day? If he is only there for an hour a day, he may not need an assistant. Who knows what his individual education plan says? We have self contained special education programs for children with severe needs, but other kids are mainstreamed depending on their needs and abilities. Also, if he just moved to your district from somewhere else, the previous district may not have had the same programs avaiable as yours and he may be assigned an assistant or moved to a more appropriate setting. It is hard to tell. There are federal laws mandating special education services, but often parents still have to fight for these things because they are very expensive and the federal government doesn't give school districts enough money to cover all the services needed. It is very sad. It shouldn't be that way.
Most school districts bus kids to nearby schools if there is room when numbers get that high. Sounds like there are no other schools near you with room.

Unfortunately this is normal. No money for schools classes get bigger, stuff goes away. I have a sped child, your district might have inclusion rules, where the sped kids don't have special ed rooms. Plus it is determined individually if a child needs an aide or needs to be someplace else. It is sad that if this child needs more help and can't get it. I also know, they start off with the minimal amount and work up to what the child actually needs. My son has anger issues and they started off with him counting to ten. If you have the time offer to volunteer to help out the teacher. I know they rely more and more on volunteers with funding going away.

oh my. my heart aches for that teacher! not to mention the poor kids.
yikes!
i'm assuming that this kid doesn't have an aide because your school can't afford it. lack of funding is a huge issue. just going to the school board won't fix it because they probably don't have the means to fix it. can you get your child into a different school?
khairete
S.

I know in this area, all the the major school districts are cutting back on everything because of lack of money and federal funding. I don't know how big the class sizes are, but 35 in 3rd grade sounds very large, especially with a child who needs extra attention.

We had a neighbor at our old house that her daughter WAS the special needs child. Even though she officially could not be there to help her daughter, she did volunteer at the school to not only be available for her daughter if needed, but she knew the teachers/school needed extra help.

I would disagree with the poster who said classes are larger in private schools. I'm sure it depends on the school and the area, but that is completely not the case for us. And one of the reasons why we moved our children to a private school 10 years ago. While there may be 50 in a grade level, those 50 kids are split up into 3 classrooms, so less than 20 in a classroom.

Good Luck. And remember YOU are your child's biggest advocate!

I am suprised your special need child does not have his own aide...I thought that was the law. In our school every single special need child has their very own assistant who is with them at every moment. Sometimes you can have 2-3 adults in a class BESIDES the teacher. Maybe it is a PA thing, who knows. I would check into what the law is in OR. The addition of this child could be the straw that breaks the back of your teacher. Don't hesitate to talk to your principal about this.

I can't believe that any learning is going on at all in your childs class. holy mackeral-that is a HUGE class. If that were happening here I would try to organize parents to go in and help. Or talk to the admin about doing and internship program with colleges around you. My kids classes always have a student teacher in the fall AND the spring in class to learn and function as an aide.

There should be an aide and that is far too many students for one teacher at that grade level. Unfortunately, because of budget cuts and layoffs, there isn't a thing that teacher (and likely her principal) can do. Are you able to volunteer as a parent helper? Teachers can use all the help we can get.

That depends on the school district. Since it seems that districts are growing and there is less money to put extra teachers in the schools there seems to be more students in classes. As for special needs students that is also a funding issue. Perhaps the aide hasn't been placed in the mainstream class yet or maybe the student has not been identified as such. There are a lot of factors involved. Just know that the classroom teacher is doing the best that she can.

My mom told me that in Texas this next year they are looking at having to have class sizes up to 40-50 students because of budget cuts. That's really what it's dependent on is how much money the district has to employ teachers and aides. I would be happy with the 35 and be glad you don't have a student in one of these 40-50 student districts. (although I do agree that it is a large class size).

As far as him in particular not having an aide, most "special needs" kids are incorporated into classrooms now and taken out throughout the day for special services. They aren't provided an aide in the classroom because the idea is to have them be treated like all the other kids or "mainstreamed." If he had an aide just for himself in the classroom, I think the fear is that it will be stigmatizing.

When I was in school the cap was at 44 (we sometimes had up to 46). This was elementary in the 80's, middle & high in the 90's.

In 1999 there was a nationwide program the funded getting class size in grades k-3 down to 21 per class (not required, merely that schools could apply for the grant if their k-3 grades had more than 18 students per class). That money / program is long gone (changed with NCLB)

I would contact http://www.ode.state.or.us/ (oregon dept of education) to find out if there is a current standard

I'm sure ir varies by district depending on the budgets, amount of students, teachers, etc you weren't there all day you don't know if there is an aide they could have been out sick or even shared between a few rooms. Just because a child is special needs does not mean they get individual aides. My sons 3rd grade has an aide in one classroom but she's there mostly to translate sign language a lot of the kids that could use 1 on 1 unfortunately don't always get it. Also if this student just transferred it's quite possible that the school hasn't filled the position of an aide

A regular class size is anywhere form 20-35 or so. In private schools sometimes the class sizes are a little more. As for the special needs child. Are you sure he doesn't have an aide? is he in the classroom all the time or just a few minutes a day. IEP's are in place to give a child the least restrictive learning environment possible. Could be that he is to have a set amount of time each day in a non special ed classroom in order to model behaviors etc. maybe his aid was out for the day. maybe she was just in another part of the building for that class time.

holy cow. here you can only have 20 kids per class per teacher. If there is a special needs child, there needs to be an aide with them. otherwise it can be a real distraction to the other children. That is entirely too many children for one teacher. call your local school board!

In Texas it is 28 (I think). The upper grades 6th and up can have 33-35.

The general class size for 3rd grade is 21 students. Since this is a special needs class, there should definately be less children. Since there are so many kids, there should be 3 aides in the class. Maybe you should speak with someone about this.

It depends on the district and contract. In my district, my grade level (4th) caps at 32 students, and I would get a teaching assistant at 28 kids. A child with special needs does not always have an aide. However, if this child does, it means they have to interview to hire someone, which takes time. You can call your district office to inquire about class size caps. But, there really is nothing you can do about it if it's in compliance with policy/contracts.

That is crazy - my son's class has 11 kids in it, and the teacher struggles sometimes. We need to campaign for no classes above 20.

I dont know, but I would research it if I were you, my daughter has 24 I thought that was crazy! 35 is way too many!!

35 is super high.
My daughter is in 3rd grade and her class has 20 in it.

How many 3rd grade teachers are there? How big are their classes? I think the first step would be to talk to the Principal. Next step would be to talk to the School Board.

Good luck.

class size depends on the school's classification. Our school district cannnot have more than 23 in a classroom.....I think. (my info is old.)

& I agree: that child deserves an aide.

My daughter is a senior in high school but when she was this age the max was 20 and there was a ton of parents helping out. That would be very hard to handle at that age.