at my private school, we had 2 doves, a guinea pig (well, 2, but not at the same time), and suckerfish living in a tank infested by snails (they cleared the infestation but some sentimental kid wanted to leave one snail and!! wouldn't you know it that sucker reproduced asexually! ahaha). it worked out well since there were only about 10 students in the upper elementary section, which is where they kept the pets. we were all from 4th-6th grade, but everyone was really nice with the animals, i think it's just bc the small class size made it so the teacher could always be watching.

i really think kids should only be allowed to have pets if their parents are also dedicated to taking care of the thing, or at least can spend a month or two learning and teaching their kid how to properly care for the pet. my poor fish and hamsters had the saddest lives, their cages were tiny, i never cleaned them enough, the hamsters never got snacks in addition to their mix food or any roam time outside the cage, and i never held them because they always bit me. so i really wanna make things right with my rats. it's only 2 rats, but i got them the deluxe 4-platform critter nation cage so that they really have room to roam around. and they're gonna get at least an hour a day outside of the cage, and lots of good healthy snacks.