In California what number do they divide by to determine the number of classes they need?

Question

And is there a rounding policy? Like 0.5 or higher round up?

How would you calculate how many classes to have for

78 kindergartners
81 first graders
80 second graders
85 third graders
71 fourth graders
78 fifth graders
69 sixth graders

thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Usually there is something in the district's policy that states how large the classes can be. They would determine how many children to put into each class by how many teachers there are. If there are too many kids, they hire another teacher for that grade. This is generally, I don't know if California does things differently.

Answer 2

Ed code in California allows the districts a lot of latitude in determining class size, unless they are getting the funding for class size reduction. In K-3 classes they need an average of 20. That means that they use 20 so in your example they would have 4 classes for each of the K-3 grades
For upper grades the teachers associations try to get this as language in their contract. In my district we have cap language, so that if the district exceeds 32 they need to pay the teacher a per pupil stipend. So your numbers would mean we would have some combo classes. We would have 2 - 4th and 5th grade classes (30 each) and one 4th and 5th combo (29)....sixth grade they would probably pay the stipend and have 2 classes of 34-35.