NICEVILLE — As Florida lawmakers retreat from a mandate that would have forced later start times for middle and high schools, a renewed debate unfolded on Monday as members of the Okaloosa County School Board heard comments from a local pediatrician urging school leaders to reconsider early schedules despite mounting logistical and financial challenges.
Dr. Lynn Keefe, a longtime Okaloosa County pediatrician, addressed the school board during public comment, warning that decades of sleep research show chronic sleep deprivation among adolescents is harming students’ physical health, mental well-being and brain development.
“Kids who get inadequate sleep are not healthy,” Keefe said. “The data is overwhelming, and the damage to kids’ brains and bodies is real.”
Her remarks came as Gov. Ron DeSantis recently
signed legislation allowing school districts to comply with a 2023 state law on later start times without actually changing their schedules, effectively delaying widespread implementation.
A mandate softened
Under the original 2023 law, middle schools could not begin instruction earlier than 8 a.m., and high schools could not start before 8:30 a.m., with the changes set to take effect in the 2026–27 school year.
Lawmakers said the goal was to improve student academic performance and mental health.
But legislation signed in May allows districts to be deemed “in compliance” by submitting a report outlining their current start times, the strategies they considered, projected costs and any unintended consequences of changing schedules.
Districts must still inform their communities about the “health, safety, and academic impacts of sleep deprivation,” but they are no longer required to adopt later start times if they document why doing so would be impractical.
State lawmakers backing the change said feedback from school districts across Florida was “overwhelming,” citing rising transportation costs, bus driver shortages and concerns that younger students would end up waiting for buses in pre-dawn hours.
Science versus systems
Nationally, psychologists and pediatricians have long argued that early school start times conflict with adolescent biology. According to the
American Psychological Association, adolescents aged 13 to 18 need 8 to 10 hours of sleep per night, yet most fail to get it.
CDC data show that 77% of U.S. high school students reported insufficient sleep in 2021, up from 69% in 2009. Nearly 84% of 12th graders did not get enough rest.
Over the past 25 years, more than 500 school districts nationwide have moved start times later, researchers say.
Studies link those changes to longer sleep duration, improved mood, better attendance, higher grades and fewer teen car crashes.
Superintendent Marcus Chambers told the Okaloosa board that while the research is compelling, implementation remains difficult. The district operates a three-tiered bus system and is short roughly 20 bus drivers, a staffing gap mirrored across Florida.
“If high school starts later, somebody else has to start earlier,” Chambers said. “In all transparency, that would likely be elementary students.”
School Board Member Parker Destin said he was interested in continuing the discussion, acknowledging both the science and the logistical realities.
“There is a lot of science behind why high school students are deprived of necessary sleep,” Destin said, adding that early schedules combined with athletics and extracurricular activities can be especially taxing.
Board Chair Lynda Evanchyk noted that the district has offered limited flexibility by allowing some high school students to skip early-morning periods and to arrive later.
“That doesn’t fully solve the problem, but it is one step,” she said.
