With school districts across the state expressing support, Florida senators Monday started moving forward with a bill that would repeal requirements aimed at later daily start times in many high schools.
Lawmakers in 2023 approved the requirements, citing a need for older students to get more sleep. [The need is supported by extensive research that points to better academic performance and better health.] The requirements are slated to take effect in 2026, but as the deadline has neared, districts have said they are struggling to comply.
Bill sponsor Jennifer Bradley, R-Fleming Island, said the 2023 law was “very well-intentioned and it sought to ensure that our high-school students were well-rested.” Under the law, high schools could not start earlier than 8:30 a.m. and middle schools could not start earlier than 8 a.m.
“To date, school districts across the state have begun their analysis of the impact of these required start times for the 2026 school year, and the feedback is overwhelming: A state mandate on school start times would present incredible challenges, financially and otherwise,” Bradley said before the Senate Education Pre-K-12 Committee voted 5-1 to approve the bill (SB 296).
Bradley, who represents a sprawling, largely rural area of North Florida, said many school districts would need to buy buses and hire hard-to-find bus drivers. Also, she said the later start times could affect such things as student participation in after-school activities and parents’ work schedules and child care.
Statewide organizations representing superintendents and school boards, along with numerous school districts, expressed support Monday for Bradley’s bill.
Sen. Lori Berman, D-Boca Raton, said she voted for the 2023 law and likes the idea of later start times for older children, but the Palm Beach County school district told her it would not be feasible to meet the requirements.
“They said it was just impossible for them to be able to meet this mandate,” Berman said.
Sen. Don Gaetz, a Niceville Republican who is a former Okaloosa County superintendent of schools, cast the only dissenting vote Monday.
While the 2023 law also addressed middle schools, it was primarily about high schools. Citing information from the Legislature’s Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability, a Senate analysis said the average start time for Florida high schools is 7:45 a.m. It said 46 percent of high schools start before 7:30 a.m., and 19 percent start between 7:30 a.m. and 8:00 a.m.
It said the average start time for middle schools is 9:03 a.m., with 8 percent starting before 8 a.m. At Flagler Palm Coast High School and Matanzas High School, the day begins at 8:10 a.m. At the county’s two middle schools, it begins at 7:30 a.m.
While Bradley’s bill would repeal the requirements, it says school districts would have to “consider the benefits of a later school start time when adopting middle school and high school start times.”
Rep. Anne Gerwig, R-Wellington, has filed a similar bill (HB 261) in the House. The annual legislative session will start Tuesday.
–Jim Saunders, News Service of Florida
