How much later will your school start? What to know about a change in Florida times
.JPG "Public middle and high schools in Florida will be starting school later after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law, HB 733, on Friday, May 12, 2023. The changes go into effect by July 2026. MAST Academy students walk to school Oct. 7, 2020, on the first day of in-school classes after Miami-Dade public schools were closed due to COVID from March 2020.")
School will be starting later for Florida middle and high school students attending public schools beginning in 2026, a move that health experts say will benefit sleep-deprived adolescents but has working parents concerned about the later times impacting their work day.
Here’s what to know about what’s coming:
Details of the bill DeSantis signed
What the bill does: Gov. Ron DeSantis signed HB 773, a bill passed by the Legislature, on Friday. The bill, which will go into effect for the 2026-27 school year, will prevent public middle schools from beginning classes before 8 a.m. Public high schools will be barred from starting the school day before 8:30 a.m.
Time frame: School districts around the state will have three years to modify their schedules. The new law does not affect private schools, but charter schools will have to comply with the later times.
Start times: About 48 percent of Florida’s public high schools start school before 7:30 a.m., according to the Legislature’s Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability. Another 19 percent of high schools start between 7:30 a.m. and 7:59 a.m.
What people are saying about later school times?
Supporters of the bill have pointed to studies that say later start times would benefit high school students.
Lawmaker: “What we’re doing now (with earlier start times) is not what’s best for our kids, for the adolescents especially,” Senate bill sponsor Danny Burgess, R-Zephyrhills, said during the Legislative Session. “It’s the ‘how’ that can be the hard challenge and the logistics of that and how we make this happen.”
Doctors: The American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended that middle and high schools start at 8:30 a.m. or later so students get a sufficient amount of sleep, which they recommend as 8.5 hours to 9.5 hours a night. High school students who don’t get enough sleep have higher risks of obesity, depression, drinking, drugs and performing poorly in school, according to studies from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Social: “This is very important legislation. Adolescents need sleep in order to perform the way they are expected to. The adolescent brain and body needs 10-12 hours of sleep a night to grow and develop. They are NOT adults! Quit expecting them to function as such!” commented Shayna Adams in a CBS12 Facbook post about the change.
Time change impact on families
Parents: But the new law has led to concerns about how working parents would be affected by later school start times. “High schools would start later than middle schools? Kids work in high school. That can’t be good. Not to mention them playing sports in the dark. It gets dark early half the year,” commented Joy Gertz in a Local10 Facebook post about the change.
Survey: A July 2022 survey by the Sleep Foundation that polled 1,250 parents and teachers showed they had mixed feelings about later school start times. Among parents surveyed, 44.2 percent wanted no change in the school start times, 34.7 percent wanted a later start time and 21.1 percent wanted an earlier start time.
Teachers: Among full-time teachers, 36.6 percent wanted an earlier start time, 35.2 percent wanted a later start time and 28.2 percent preferred no change to the start times, according to the Sleep Foundation survey. The Sleep Foundation is a Washington-based nonprofit that provides health-related information related to sleep.
Information from the News Service of Florida was used in this report.
This story was originally published May 16, 2023 at 11:00 AM.
