Florida lawmakers are closer to reversing course on school start times

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Florida lawmakers Wednesday moved forward with shielding school districts from a 2023 law aimed at later daily start times for high schools. The House Education Administration Subcommittee unanimously approved a bill (HB 261), sponsored by Rep. Anne Gerwig, R-Wellington. In approving the requirements in 2023, lawmakers cited a need for older students to get more sleep. The requirements are slated to take effect in 2026, but as the deadline has neared, many school districts have said they are struggling to comply because of issues such as needing to buy buses and find bus drivers. Also, they say later start times affect after-school activities and child-care issues. “We all understand the science (of later start times for older students), and the science makes sense,” Rep. Jeff Holcomb, R-Spring Hill, said. “But it’s a logistics nightmare. At the end of the day, are we going to send our elementary school students to school at 7 a.m.? There really isn’t a good answer.” 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., though the issue centers on high schools. The bill would allow districts to avoid meeting the requirements if they submit reports outlining school start times and information such as strategies considered to have later times. “I would suggest, as a parent, that kids could get more sleep if they went to bed earlier,” Gerwig said. A similar Senate bill (SB 296) is scheduled to be heard Thursday by the Senate Fiscal Policy Committee.