ORLANDO, Fla. — Orange County parents have made their voices clear when it comes to changing school start times.

What You Need To Know

A new Orange County Public Schools survey shows most parents, students and staff oppose changing high school start times
District leaders proposed starting high schools later to address teen sleep deprivation and mental health concerns
Survey results show 59% of parents and community members and 66% of students oppose the change
More than 70,000 people responded to the survey, citing impacts on athletics, work schedules and family routines

A new survey conducted by the district shows a majority of parents, students and staff are opposed to moving back the first bell for local high schools.

“My kid is an early riser, we’re out the door early, we have a lot of downtime before school starts,” said Jessica Popov, an Orange County Public Schools parent.

Popov has two children in Orange County Public Schools, one in elementary school and her oldest in middle school. She says right now, school start times do not affect her family, but as they get older and reach high school, that could change.

“I’ve noticed as a sixth grade parent, he has started to wake up later, and he was also my early riser in elementary school, and now I have to sort of battle him to get out of bed,” Popov said.

District leaders proposed starting high school later in the morning, citing several studies showing sleep deprivation can increase the risk of anxiety and depression in adolescents.

However, the change would have shifted start times for other grade levels as well.

“Our entire board, when we did a work session on start times, basically said we’re going to listen to the community. If the community really wants us to move start times out for high schoolers, we would’ve obviously looked at that and made that happen, but that is not what the survey told us,” said Angie Gallo, Orange County School Board member representing District 1.

A 2023 state law required districts to shift start times later for high school students. But two years later, the state legislature allowed districts to opt out if they could prove their community does not support the schedule.

Survey results in Orange County show 59% of parents and community members opposed the change, along with 66% of students.

“So back in 2019, it was basically the same. They overwhelmingly said no. We really don’t want start times to change and that’s kind of what we saw in this latest survey as well. Due to athletics, work schedules, interruption of family life, taking care of young siblings,” Gallo said.

More than 70,000 people responded to the survey.

“I like that they are asking for community input. But there is so much scientific backing on the other end of this,” Popov said.

Under the proposal, high schools would have started at 8:40 a.m. instead of around 7:20 a.m. But to make that happen, elementary schools would have shifted to a 7:45 a.m. start time, an hour earlier than they currently begin. Middle schools would have started slightly later as well, shifting by about five minutes as part of the proposed change.