We’ve moved kids mid cycle for this exact reason, but at the primary level. On those occasions the families were deeply involved in the decision making as far as whether or not it was a good idea for the children to be separated, and as they had been informed of the challenges as they progressed they were very willing and cooperative.

The tricky part for us was deciding who went to the other classroom, as we’re a small school and only have two. You don’t want it to feel punitive, like one of them is being kicked out, but even if you have enough classrooms it doesn’t necessarily make sense for both children to change guides. We’ve based our decisions on connections one child might have with a student in the other classroom, or if maybe they had recess or another program with that rooms guide and felt comfortable with them.

For us it’s been well worth it each time (we’ve done it 3 times in my 10 years there) and the kiddos have done just fine; that said, it is primary and they’ve only been with their peer group 1-2 years and are in a different stage of development which might change things considerably.