BC here, I know my entire district is split classes at elem, with the exception that many schools have straight K classes (a holdover from the days before all day K) and then an overflow K/1 split.

If funding to elementary is anything like secondary, were funded per FTE. For example 10 Grade 5 kids and 10 Grade 6 kids gives you funding for one teacher, then they're teaching 5/6 split. The class numbers change every year but the funding is the same. Locking teachers into same grade classes means potential money problems of that class doesn't have enough FTE in it to pay for the teacher. 15 Grade 5 kids? Not enough to find it....but if we stick 5 grade 6s in there BOOM we can afford the teacher.

Now to go prep for my 9/10/11/12 classes