No more buses in the dark. Miami-Dade schools could start no earlier than 8 a.m.

All Miami-Dade County Public Schools students may be able to sleep in a little later next school year.

The School Board voted unanimously on Wednesday to explore later school start times beginning in August 2020. The goal, said Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, is to start all schools no earlier than 8 a.m.

“I think that would be a terrific advantage at many, many levels,” he said.

According to two proposed models, elementary schools could be pushed back to 8 a.m. so middle and high schools could start at 8:30 or 9:30. If high schools were to start at 9:30 a.m., they could dismiss as late as 4:10 p.m. Those times could be shifted earlier or later.

The district plans on creating a task force to settle on the 2020-21 bell schedule. That task force, scheduled to meet for the first time in December, will be comprised of students, parents, teachers, labor groups, athletic coaches and representatives from the county’s transportation department. A recommendation from the task force is expected to go before the board by April.

Later school start times, however, mean a countywide logistical shift. Carvalho says that shortening the windows between pick-up and drop-off times for elementary, middle and high school could mean that 40 bus routes are freed up to offer transportation to students in choice programs. That could save the district $3 million, a conservative estimate, he said.

Carvalho called the move a “cost-benefit analysis wrapped around science and convenience.”

The district would have to work with the county to coordinate school speed zones and crossing guards accordingly. And it may have to use some of its $2 billion general obligation bond money to add lighting for later school days.

Labor unions are wary of the change in logistics for their workforce.

Fraternal Order of Police 133 President Al Palacio, who will represent 460 officers in the Miami-Dade Schools Police Department next year, said that could throw off the department’s scheduling for after-school programs like adult education.

“We would have to reconfigure our whole department,” he said. “That could be an issue.”

Phyllis Leflore, president of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 1184, said she’d be open to surveying her members about later start times. AFSCME employees include bus drivers and their dispatchers, food service workers and custodians.

Leflore said 80% of her 7,500 members have second jobs, as AFSCME employees are among the lowest paid in the school system.

“I have mixed feelings about it,” she said.

But later start times could mean less risk of drunk drivers on the road from late nights out. The first school bus goes out at 4:50 a.m., but some transportation workers arrive at the depot as early as 4:15 a.m.

“Pushing the times back, it may be better, I don’t know,” Leflore said. On the other hand, later dismissal means more traffic.

The district’s actions follow through on a 2013 proposal by board member Martin Karp. For the past two years, the district has been researching the implementation of later start times in Hillsborough County, Boston and Seattle as well as piloting later start times at select high schools. The result, according to the school board proposal, yielded reports of higher energy and alertness from participating students.

Carvalho said feedback from 1,800 students last school year found that high school students get five to six hours of sleep — well under the recommended eight to 10 hours a night for that age group. Just 11% of students, Carvalho said, reported that they felt rested and alert.

Research shows that most adolescents do not get enough sleep — not because of social media or video games, but because adolescents experience a temporary biological shift in sleep onset and wake times. Shifting bell times for middle and high school students to start school at 8:30 a.m. or later has been endorsed by many major medical associations including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychological Association and the American Medical Association.

The National PTA has encouraged communities to “aim for start times in high school and middle school that allow students the opportunity to achieve optimal levels of sleep.”

Also Wednesday, the School Board elected Perla Tabares Hantman to a 12th term as chair. Steve Gallon was elected as vice chair.

This story was originally published November 20, 2019 at 7:09 PM.