Adapted PE Calculator

Paraprofessional aides support the specific students who need adapted PE accommodations, not the class as a whole, so Aides/Paraprofessionals Needed is calculated only from Students with Disabilities and Average Severity. A class of 60 with 3 students needing support requires the same aide count as a class of 15 with those same 3 students -- the general-education classmates around them don't change the support need. The one exception is at the extremes: Students with Disabilities can never exceed Total Class Size (you can't have more students needing support than are enrolled), so if you set Students with Disabilities high and then shrink Total Class Size below it, the effective count gets capped down to Total Class Size and Aides/Paraprofessionals Needed drops with it. That cap only matters when Students with Disabilities would otherwise be larger than the class itself.

At the mildest severity level, this calculator assumes accommodations are mostly rule and space modifications plus peer support rather than specialized equipment purchases -- lowering a target, allowing extra attempts, or pairing with a peer buddy typically doesn't require buying anything new. Equipment costs only apply starting at moderate severity, where physical modifications like adapted balls, tactile boundary markers, or specialized grips more commonly become necessary.

No -- Primary Disability Type only changes WHICH specific equipment modifications this calculator recommends (visual cues for hearing impairments, tactile markers for visual impairments, sensory-friendly equipment for autism, and so on). Aides/ Paraprofessionals Needed, Modified Equipment Cost, and every time-allocation number are all driven by Average Severity and Students with Disabilities, not by which category of disability is most common in the class.

It flags a specific combination this calculator checks for: when students needing accommodations make up more than 30% of the class AND Average Severity is Significant or Extensive. IDEA requires physical education for all students but also allows a separate Adapted PE class setting when integrated general PE can't adequately meet a student's needs -- this flag is a planning signal to evaluate that option, not an automatic placement decision, which must go through the IEP team process.

No -- this calculator applies general, severity-based staffing and modification patterns informed by SHAPE America Adapted PE guidance as a planning and budgeting reference. Actual services, accommodations, and staffing ratios for any individual student must follow that student's own Individualized Education Program (IEP) or Section 504 plan, which are legally binding and always take precedence over a general estimate like this one.