Many students here at Osceola are used to school starting at 7:25 A.M, but has anyone ever wondered what it would be like to wake up later? As reported on WTSP, according to House Bill 733, this law will be enforced. “By July 1, 2026, the instructional day for middle schools may not begin earlier than 8 a.m. and the instructional day for high schools may not begin earlier than 8:30 a.m.” This law was passed by the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, on May 11, 2023. This debate has been going on for years, and only until now has it been able to be put into action. So, what he means is that school can’t start before 8:30, which would ultimately mean that we would have to get out of school later, approximately later than 2:00 P.M. This would mean that many after-school activities will be held later in the day, and many will get home later and have less time to do homework and study. As of 2024, most of Pinellas County high schools start at 7:25 A.M and end at 1:55 P.M, and considering this, the new law will have changes for students in many ways. Alexis Haylock, a junior, said, “I think I would like to experience that just to get a feel for it, but honestly considering my schedule now, I don’t think I would like to start school later”.
After learning this, a survey was conducted to see what people thought about this schedule change, and the three following questions were asked.
1-Would having a later school start time affect you negatively or positively?
2. Would you still do after school activities?
3. Would you prefer to start school later?
After asking students these questions, 47% of students said that going to school later would affect them positively, and 53% said this new time would affect them negatively. Many do after school activities, and when asking the question whether students would continue to do after-school activities, 53% said that they would continue to do activities, and 47% said that they wouldn’t continue to do activities. After all this, the last question was whether students would prefer starting school later. 51% of students said they would prefer starting school later and 49% said they wouldn’t like to start school later. After reviewing data on the survey, it’s clear that 58% of the students that were surveyed were 9th graders this year, so knowing this we had to get an opinion from someone who was going to still be in high school when this law was enforced. Interviewing Miguel Castilla Jr. about whether he would like this law when it’s enforced, he said “Yes, because I like sleeping a lot and don’t like to wake up so early. For me school starting early is very unpleasant”. Miguel would be a Junior when this law is enforced so he would get to experience this time change. However, if you will still be in high school fall of 2026 get ready for this time change.