This is a legacy version of the WELL Building Standard. Please check the latest version here.

Education space provisions

Education space provisions

Intent: 

To ensure that classrooms offer suffient space for students to learn by establishing a maximum room density.

BACKGROUND

Class sizes kept to a reasonably manageable number of students can help to increase the amount of time a teacher is able to spend individually with a student, while decreasing the amount of time spent on addressing classroom disruptions. This can help to promote increased student achievement, especially for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Additionally, allowing students adequate space in the classroom can be a strategy to keep learning spaces from becoming spaces of stress, and instead represent spaces conducive to focus, productive collaboration and creative thinking.

Part 1
Classroom Space Allocation

The following minimum space allocations are met:
a.134
Early education, elementary, middle and high school; classroom: 4 m² [45 ft²] per student overall.
b.138
Adult education; seminar classroom: 2 m² [25 ft²] per student overall.
c.138
Adult education; lecture hall: 1.5 m² [18 ft²] per student overall.

Part 2
Class Size Caps for Elementary School

The number of students per class for 90% of offered classes may not exceed the following:
a.137
Elementary school: 18 students maximum.