<human>: Hello /r/parenting! I've been lurking about for a little bit and on an unrelated note I am about to become a new dad! Anyway...

I work in a medium-sized church of about 2,000 members (should I have used a throwaway?) and am planning a lock-in for middle school aged kids with a volunteer parent. This church, probably because of its size, does a pretty good job of doing things right - for example, background checks on volunteers w/ kids, proper liability forms, etc. 

One of the things I've brought to the table since I joined the team is healthy and good parent-child ratios. For this age group (10-13) a good ratio (from what I've been taught) is about 1 adult for every 7-8 kids. 

Now, the question... I'm surprised, but I've received a bit of push back from some of the parents. In my mind, the mind of the volunteer helping to plan and our staff this is a good ratio. I don't want to outwardly question the motives of the parents. It's our firm belief that a family who chooses to participate in a church ought to teach and communicate about faith within their family, so we like this ratio not just for ease of controlability (not a word) and accountability but also because it involves parents in the faith formation of their kids.  We believe in close families with involved parents (or guardians, as the case may be). 

This leads me to my question for you. I'm unable to find any good "objective" sources beyond a UK (i'm in the US) government website talking about daycare.  It sounds simple, but an outside source will be incredibly helpful. Can you help me?

I don't presume to be responsible for raising their kids, I don't want to argue with parents over the right way to raise them and I'm sorry that in a classroom setting it is often 1 teacher to 25-30 kids but that is also in an environment where students can be punished i.e. extra homework, no recess, detention...

p.s. Sorry if I ramble. I'm a much better communicator in person than I am in text.

Can you give me the gist of the text in a nutshell?
<bot>: I'm asking for an outside source recommending a healthy parent-child ratio for supervised community/church events with kids aged 10-13... even if the source disagrees with our choice of about 1 parent to 7 or 8 kids.