J: if students from a special education self-contained classroom are placed into a general education classroom for mainstreaming time, do these students count toward the general education classroom teacher’s caseload (I.e., do the numbers matter if that teacher is being forced to go over contractual student numbers, and the students from the special education classroom are not being assigned to any general education classroom teacher’s class roster?)?
This is more of a contractual issue between the school union and the school district. In some larger school districts, many specials like art, gym, music, etc. are overcrowded this way. Some contracts allow for compensation of overcrowded classrooms. If there is not union involved, you should talk to the administration to get more clarification. In most cases, the students from contained classrooms had aides accompany them, well sometimes