Florida lawmakers gave their first public hint of how they might scale back the 2002 class size amendment without going back to the voters during a House committee meeting this morning. The vehicle would be legislation creating a class size "exigent flexibility exception."

The exception would allow districts that have unexpected enrollment growth after the school year begins to have individual classrooms exceed the mandated student counts by up to five students, for one year only. It would deem three actions as "not practical or educationally unsound and disruptive to students" - breaking up a class mid-year, establishing a new class at the school and transferring students to another school in the district.

The idea was part of a larger discussion on how the state will comply with the law, which sets class size limits of 18 for kindergarten through third grade, 22 for fourth through eighth grade and 25 for high school grades. Classroom counts are scheduled to take effect in the fall.

To see the proposed exception amendment, click here. To see the full packet that was discussed, click here (and be patient, it's long and takes a while to load). To see an Associated Press report on the session, click here.