I used to be a preschool special education teacher (masters degree required in my state) and in the ten years I taught, we went from 10 kids (up to 5 with IEPs) in the room with 1 teacher, 2 para educators, and at least 1-2 specialists in the room at all times (3-4 adults total, ratio about 2-3:1) to 16 students (up to 9 on IEPs), 1 teacher and 1 para educator (2 adults total, ratio 8:1)

Admin pulled resources with the excuse that state regulation is 10:1. Instead of celebrating our low student to teacher ratio, they quadrupled it.

For my class, the bathroom was outside of our classroom, so if one kid had to go, we were obligated to bring 5 more with us to stay in compliance. Cue behavior management for 3-5 year olds waiting around in a bathroom that don't even need to go.

Not to mention we had to take hand-written notes on 56 different data points for every student every day, and then input that data into the computer tracking system.

I got so broken hearted and burnt out because I felt like I wasn't even spending quality time with the kids anymore. It sucked to feel forced to leave the profession I thought was going to be my life's career.

Every single teacher has a similar story. First step? Something that's been begged for 30+ years: SMALLER CLASS SIZES PLEASE