Not every misalignment calls for the same fix. Depending on what your analysis showed, consider:

• Reducing scheduled staff during a specific window where the data shows consistent high staff load
• Redirecting staff time — moving a teacher to another classroom or task during a slow period rather than cutting hours outright
• Combining classrooms for part of the day, as described above
• Changing operating hours, if attendance data shows the edges of your day are consistently underused

Whatever option you consider, judge it against your program’s target ratio from Lesson 1 — not only the COMAR minimum. An adjustment that is legally compliant but conflicts with your program’s own quality standard is not a good fit, even if it saves money.