Preschool cohort/pod of 18 kids?
Hello parents,
I'm doing some research on preschools mostly by asking friends and neighbors about their experiences, since we can't visit schools. One neighborhood preschool has a cohort of 18 kids with two teachers. I understand this is legal in pre-covid times, but from everything I can find in Contra Costa County Health Department limits the groups to 14 kids. Is there something I'm missing? Are there waivers to have bigger pods? Note, this is for the 3-6 age group, not babies.
How big are the cohorts at your preschools? I'm not trying to get them in trouble, just trying to understand and find a preschool spot for my kid.
Thank you.
Sep 17, 2020
Parent Replies
Our preschool caps each class at 12 kids total per class. Some days there are less than 12 kids in a given class (some kids are on a 4/day week schedule), but the total number of kids enrolled in the class, and thus the max number of kids on any given day, is 12. Each class has at least two and sometimes three teachers who remain stable with that class and don't rotate into other classes. I agree that 18 kids per 2 teachers seems high!
Similar to previous post, our preschool is following all CDC guidelines which my understanding is 12 or <. In addition there are 2-3 teachers per classroom and stay with that specific group of kids.
Our preschool pod is 9 kids from 8 families (there is one set of siblings) and 2 teachers.
Ours is capped at 10 or 11, though I think that's related to the size of room they have in part.
Our preschool caps cohorts at 12 as well. Two teachers and one aide per cohort, no mixing between cohorts. Like the other poster commented, 18 seems too large of a cohort.