With Florida school districts facing a 2026 deadline, a Senate Republican on Friday filed a proposal that would repeal requirements aimed at later start times for many high schools.
The proposal (SB 296), filed by Sen. Jennifer Bradley, R-Fleming Island, would undo changes that lawmakers passed in 2023. Those changes require that by July 1, 2026, middle schools cannot start earlier than 8 a.m., and high schools cannot start earlier than 8:30 a.m.
The proposal would also benefit Flagler County schools, where officials in 2023 studied new start times, but in the opposite direction: earlier start times for high school students. (See: “Flagler District Wants Earlier High School Start Time Just as State and Research Go the Other Way.”)
Supporters of later start times have argued that the changes would help high-school students get more sleep. But the requirements have faced concerns from school districts about issues such as bus schedules.
During a legislative delegation meeting this month, for example, Okeechobee County Superintendent of Schools Dylan Tedders pointed to issues in carrying out the requirements in his largely rural district.
“A huge topic for us in this community is going to be school start times, and you’re hearing that everywhere,” Tedders told the county delegation’s members, Sen. Erin Grall, R-Vero Beach, and Rep. Kaylee Tuck, R-Lake Placid.
Tedders said high school starts in Okeechobee County at 7 a.m., elementary school starts at 8 a.m., and middle school starts at 9 a.m.
“That system works for us,” Tedders said. “We have three tiers of busing that makes all of those things seamlessly go together. To have to combine those, or shift those around, that would put elementary students out in the dark (in the morning at bus stops) potentially. So even for the high school students, to be able to go to a job, go to activities or even participate in athletics, they need to be able to get out on those same times that we do now.”
Also, the Small School District Council Consortium, which represents small districts across the state, is urging lawmakers to provide flexibility or waivers for districts where the start-time requirements are “problematic,” according to legislative priorities posted on the organization’s website.
While the requirements apply to high schools and middle schools, they are expected to have the most effect on high schools.
A 2023 House staff analysis cited a report that showed 48 percent of public high schools started before 7:30 a.m., and 19 percent started between 7:30 a.m. and 7:59 a.m. Meanwhile, 83 percent of middle schools started at 8:30 a.m. or later, according to the report by the Legislature’s Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability.
Lawmakers approved the requirements amid research that indicated older students are not getting enough sleep, affecting their academic performance and health.
“This is one of those pieces of legislation where we understand the ‘why’ very well,” Senate bill sponsor Danny Burgess, R-Zephyrhills, said during a 2023 debate on the issue. “Studies, medical science, has shown that this is what’s best. What we’re doing now (with earlier start times) is not what’s best for our kids. For the adolescents especially.”
The 2023 legislation included what Burgess described as a “three-year glide path” to carry out the requirements.
Bradley’s bill is filed for consideration during the legislative session that will start March 4.
–News Service of Florida and FlaglerLive
