Lawmaker and former Teacher of the Year says special needs students make large class sizes difficult

By Michael Bielawski

During a conversation about what constitutes ideal class size in the House Education Committee on Tuesday, Rep. Kate McCann, D-Montpelier, suggested against going with larger class sizes largely on account of the high percentage of special needs students in the average Vermont classroom.

“Twenty kids in a class, if we set that as the minimum, we’re looking at seven to eight kids on 504s and IEPs [programs designed to aid special-needs students] with one teacher teaching Algebra One,” McCann said.

She speaks on this matter at about eight minutes into their committee session. They are discussing H. 454, an effort by lawmakers to put the Governor’s education reform proposals, including block grants and consolidated districts, into legislation. The bill has since changed a lot as lawmakers hash out different ideas.

McCann suggests classroom sizes closer to 15.

“It’s what we have [to consider for special needs], which is why I was I don’t like the numbers that we came up with. I’m still at the twelve (kindergarten), fifteen (grades 1 through 4), eighteen (grades 5 through 8) numbers because it’s the norm.” For high school, they are leaning towards 20 with potential carvouts for advanced or specialty courses.

McCann’s legislative bio suggests she “made teaching her life’s work” and she has a Masters in curriculum and instruction from UVM, and she was the 2017 Vermont’s Teach of the Year.

Rep. Leanne Harple, D-Glover, brought up similar concerns.

“Is there any consideration for how many kids in these classes would be on IEPs or five zero fours, which might make it so that you wanted less total students in that classroom because of the amount of resources that we need to allocate for those situations?” she said.

Rep. Beth Quimby, R-Lyndon, suggested that where there are many special needs students in a classroom, there can sometimes be help.

“The class size wouldn’t change, but we might have a second adult,” she said.

Nearly 24% need help?

According to recent data from the Vermont Department of Education, for the 2022-23 school year, 18.6% of students were on an IEP (Improvised Education Plans). Also, 5.2% are English Language Learners.

This means that close to a quarter or 23.8% of students that school year may have needed extra time and resources from schools throughout their daily education. The same document also details how overall students’ proficiency in math and English dropped rapidly by about 10% between the years 2015 and 2022.

Bellweather.com did a 2020 study indicating what schools nationwide pay extra on average per special education student, and that amount for that year is $8,160.

Something happening to the children?

Recent comments by President Trump to Congress indicate that he has assigned US Secretary of Healthcare Robert Kennedy Jr. to investigate whether more students are having autism and other disorders compared to past generations.

“As an example, not long ago — you can’t even believe these numbers — 1 in 10,000 children had autism. 1 in 10,000. And now it’s 1 in 36.  There’s something wrong.  One in 36. Think of that,” Trump said on March 4.

RFK Jr. has asserted while speaking in New Hampshire in 2023 that liability protections for vaccine manufacturers starting in 1986 corresponded with a sharp uptick in various childhood disorders, as reported by True North Reports.

Reach out to your lawmakers

See all bills assigned to this committee here. Constituents may contact committee members (click link on name for bio, party affiliation, etc.) with comments, questions, and information at the following email addresses: 

House Healthcare

All committee transcripts are available at http://www.goldendomevt.com. The Committee meeting video is available at the committee’s YouTube channel. The committee meets in the morning in Room 42.

The author is a writer for the Vermont Daily Chronicle