House Bill 733 could affect students across the state of Florida if signed into law.
“There’s really no reason to be showing up before business hours to the school,” said Representative Mike Beltran.
The bill states that school can’t start any earlier than 8 a.m. for middle schoolers and 8:30 a.m. for high schoolers.
Lawmakers said pushing back school start times mostly comes down to sleep.
“We know that sleep is really important for the restorative aspects of our body,” said Dr. David Berger, a certified pediatrician at Wholistic Pediatrics & Family Care.
Bill sponsors have cited an American Academy of Pediatrics study that states middle and high school-aged students don’t get enough sleep, which affects academic success.
“High school students, which is really what the main focus of this bill is, typically need 8-10 hours of sleep. Now over 70% of students in reporting are not getting this. They’re not getting enough sleep,” said Berger.
Some parents support this bill.
“It’s really frustrating for my kids to get up at 6:00 in the morning. They don’t want to be there. Their teachers know they don’t want to be there. They have late nights with sports and it’s just a cyclical process and it’s really hard for them to stay motivated,” said Pinellas County parent Christie Bruner.
State legislators said this is not just about sleep deprivation but has safety aspects too.
“We have a lot of students who travel to school. We don’t want them traveling to school in the dark. It can still be dark at certain times of the year if you have earlier start times,” said Beltran.
There has been pushback from people who don’t agree with later school start times.
“I know a lot of the pushback from all different groups, from students to teachers to parents to community,” said Bruner.
Some of the biggest concerns include:
- Students not having enough time for extracurricular activities if they get out of school later
- Some students work to support their families and they would have less time to do that
- Many school districts already having issues with school buses and a lack of resources like not enough drivers or funding
Some lawmakers argue school districts should make changes to how they’re busing students.
“Due to restrictions on the school bus capacity, they stagger the start times and for whatever reason, instead of having high schoolers go last, they have the high schoolers go very early in the morning and that makes very little sense. You should have the high schoolers go late,” said Beltran.
HB 733 has gotten some bipartisan support.
It passed the House and has been sent to the Senate.
If passed, it wouldn’t go into effect until July 1, 2026, to give school districts enough time to make adjustments.
