Three plans for later school start times in Palm Beach County in 2026

• School days currently start around 7:30 a.m. for high school, 8 a.m. for elementary school and 9:30 a.m. for middle school.
• A new Florida law requires later school start times starting in 2026.
• Local school leaders hope to finalize a plan by May 2025.

A new state law requires later school start times for middle and high schoolers beginning in 2026. Palm Beach County school officials are wasting no time in planning for the overhaul to the school day.

On Wednesday, the school board will hear three different plans for adjusting start times to comply with the new law. The plans need to perfectly balance the requirement for middle school to start after 8 a.m. and high school to start after 8:30 a.m. with student busing needs, after-school activities, athletic practices and rush hour traffic patterns.

School board leaders won’t decide start times during Wednesday’s workshop, but parents and caregivers can weigh in on three options at the workshop and through community input surveys coming later this year. The school board plans to make its final decision in May 2025.

Currently, most district-operated high schools begin around 7:30 a.m., elementary schools begin around 8 a.m. and middle schools begin around 9:30 a.m.

All three preliminary proposals ultimately change start times for all grade levels. One plan moves up elementary start times to 7:30 a.m., while another plan moves middle school start times all the way back to 10:20 a.m.

Lawmakers and Gov. Ron DeSantis passed the school start times law in 2023 in an effort to recognize the impacts of sleep deprivation on school-age children. Students, parents and some researchers have made the argument for later start times for more than a decade.

But districts, particularly large ones with hundreds of schools and hundreds of buses running multiple routes to get children to them, have often hit roadblocks when trying to iron out the logistics. Palm Beach County spans nearly 2,000 square miles and is responsible for more than 182,000 students.

Questions about forcing a child to the bus stop before the sun rises, families who cannot afford before-school or after-school care if classes start later and moving sports practices later in the day complicate the equation.

Here’s what to know about the proposals Palm Beach County leaders will discuss Wednesday:

Option 1: Elementary schools first at 7:30 a.m.

The first option would move elementary start times up by 30 minutes in order to stagger school bus routes:

• Elementary school day: 7:30 a.m. to 1:35 p.m.
• High school day: 8:45 a.m. to 3:45 p.m.
• Middle school day: 10:15 a.m. to 4:50 p.m.

District staff said the plan would result in buses picking up elementary students before dawn beginning around 6:25 a.m. The plan may also force bus drivers to work overtime and create a significantly later start and end time for middle school students.

Middle school would also release during peak rush hour.

Option 2: Middle schools first at 8 a.m.

The second option would push all school start times back past 8 a.m.

• Middle school day: 8 a.m. to 2:35 p.m.
• High school day: 9:15 a.m. to 4:35 p.m.
• Elementary school day: 9:45 a.m. to 3:50 p.m.

This plan would likely require pre-school childcare for elementary students, whose classes start long after the traditional work day. It would also create difficulty for after-school activities for high school students and result in high school drivers being released during peak rush hour.

High school students would need to spend an extra 20 minutes in school to ensure that bus drivers could complete elementary school routes in the afternoon. That may impact working students who rely on after-school jobs.

Option 3: High schools first at 8:30 a.m.

The third option would maintain the current order in Palm Beach County, but push the whole schedule back by an hour.

• High school day: 8:30 a.m. to 3:50 p.m.
• Elementary school day: 9 a.m. to 3:05 p.m.
• Middle school day: 10:20 a.m. to 4:55 p.m.

This plan would require morning care for elementary school students whose days start around the start of the traditional work day. It would also push the middle school day back significantly, which school staff believe could negatively impact student attendance and school staffing levels.

Middle school students would also be released during rush hour, and high school students would again need to spend an extra 20 minutes in school to ensure that bus drivers could complete elementary school routes in the afternoon.

What does busing have to do with school start times?

Many of Palm Beach County school leaders’ concerns with the later start times deal with restructuring bus routes so that the same drivers can serve all three levels of schools in one, eight-hour day.

Right now, bus drivers work a full day: They pick up and drop off high schoolers in the morning, then elementary schoolers, then middle schoolers. In the afternoon, they pick up and drop off elementary schoolers, then high schoolers and finally middle schoolers.

Any schedule change will need to coordinate pick up and drop off times so the district doesn’t need to hire a massive number of drivers — which Chief Operating Officer Joseph Sanches said could create staffing shortages or a cut in hours for existing drivers.

Boca Raton, Forest Hill High Schools already start later

Sanches said Wednesday that Forest Hill and Boca Raton High Schools already begin at 8:30 a.m. — about an hour after all other high schools in the district.

He said the district’s research showed there are students who are marked tardy, on average, in the schools with later start times. That finding was consistent…