Latest news with #schoolstarttimes
Yahoo
18-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
New state law means some Treasure Coast high schools likely to continue early start times
Indian River and St. Lucie teens hoping for extra morning sleep next school year will have to wait for school holidays. A new state law essentially eliminated a 2023 mandate for later middle and high school start times. The 2023 state law required middle schools to begin no earlier than 8 a.m., and high schools no earlier than 8:30 a.m., citing studies that showed teens perform better with a later start to their school day. On the Treasure Coast, Indian River County high schools begin at 7:05 a.m. and St. Lucie County's start at 7:33 a.m. Only Martin County high schools begin at 8:30 a.m. After school districts complained that changing school start times would cost millions to alter school bus routes, state lawmakers considered alternatives. SB 296, which was signed into law in June by Gov. Ron DeSantis, now allows school districts to be in compliance if they report their school start times and detail steps they've taken to implement later start times at middle and high schools. The report must describe the impact later start times would have on the district and any unintended consequences to the school district, students and the community. That new law, signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in June, was effective July 1. St. Lucie middle schools already comply with 2023 law With the change in law, no schedule adjustments are planned to school start times in St. Lucie County schools, said spokeswoman Lydia Martin in a statement. St. Lucie County had estimated the change would cost about $30 million because of needed changes to bus routes, Martin said. That included $20 million for additional buses and $24 million in staffing, she said. The district's middle schools already are in compliance, beginning at 9:30 a.m. and 9:40 a.m., Martin said. What to know about Florida's later school start times after SB 296 passed in the House Indian River schools planning no changes Indian River County middle and high school students will see no changes in start times to the 2025-2026 school year, officials said. But the district still might survey parents to gauge interest in changing the start times, said School Board member Peggy Jones. "We will decide as a community if we need to change anything," Jones said. "We are going to have to discuss as a community to see what works." Changing bus routes could be costly, Jones said. In addition, working parents often need older students home for after-school childcare. "That's huge for a lot of parents," Jones said. "We'll see what works, (and) see what doesn't." Martin County schools already later Martin County plans no changes for the 2025-2026 school year. The School Board is scheduled to vote on the new year's start times at its July 15 meeting. In 2024, the district adjusted its start times slightly to be one of the first to comply with the 2023 law. The state provided a monetary incentive to districts that complied early. Colleen Wixon is the education reporter for TCPalm and Treasure Coast Newspapers. She covers school districts in Indian Rier, Martin and St. Lucie counties. This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: New Florida law on school start times could impact the Treasure Coast Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
East Baton Rouge Schools eyes new start time, transportation improvements
BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) – Big news for EBR parents. Your kids could have new school start times sometime in the future. Superintendent Lamont Cole said people are expressing interest in having later start times for students. He said he wants to be transparent if he and the outside firm he hired to help with the process decide to go through with the new plan. 'No, we have not identified any schools. This is just to explore in what areas we could implement this and then go down the road of beginning to have community conversations as early as June, and then think about if that is a possibility,' said Cole. 'We've had requests from schools about looking at start times. Families have made requests to look at start times, so the plan is to go to the school, families, and have a conversation. We're not going to force start times down any school's apparatus to begin, but we do recognize there is a desire in this community for that.' Cole said since the bussing issues the school system had in 2023, which included driver shortages, out of service buses, payment issues and a resulted disruption in class time, efforts have been made to change things for the better. He also said the school system has hired an in-demand outside contractor called Prismatic Services – with a highly skilled team – to assist them. 'We have not identified any schools, but we want to begin those conversations as quickly as possible, and she's agreed to assist us in that work,' said Cole. 'In order to look at start times, there's going to be a cost. In order to look at transportation, re-routing, and removing some of our transfer sites, there's going to be a cost. In our conversations with Dr. Perito [with Prismatic Services], we talked to her about being able to evaluate all those services in one.' Cole is assuring board members he'll continue to be transparent and public with where he and Prismatic are in this process since studies are showing that later start times are conducive to better student performance. Board members said steps need to be taken if new start times are implemented, as families need time to accommodate a new schedule. East Baton Rouge Schools eyes new start time, transportation improvements US measles cases surpass 1K: CDC Is this the tornado that hit St. Louis? Moody's downgrades U.S. credit rating VIDEO: Gator shows up at Florida home in 'Jurassic Park'-like moment Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
