{"id":42330,"date":"2024-02-25T16:37:12","date_gmt":"2024-02-25T21:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=42330"},"modified":"2024-02-25T16:37:19","modified_gmt":"2024-02-25T21:37:19","slug":"did-you-know-that-a-new-state-law-will-soon-drastically-change-start-times-for-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2024\/02\/25\/did-you-know-that-a-new-state-law-will-soon-drastically-change-start-times-for-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"Did you know that a new state law will soon drastically change start times for schools?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s true, and this change will impact our entire community, including students, their families, school staff, afterschool programs, businesses and so many more!<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"680\" height=\"356\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/GHDTD5JWMAA0rsj.jpeg?resize=680%2C356&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-42331\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/GHDTD5JWMAA0rsj.jpeg?w=680&amp;ssl=1 680w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/GHDTD5JWMAA0rsj.jpeg?resize=300%2C157&amp;ssl=1 300w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By July 1, 2026, school districts must start middle school classes after 8 a.m., and high school classes at 8:30 a.m. or later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This state-mandated change in school start times was recently passed by the Florida legislature. All school districts must adjust their schedules to comply with the law.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.flsenate.gov\/Committees\/BillSummaries\/2023\/html\/3139\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">House Bill 733 \u2014 Middle School and High School Start Times<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The new school start times will not go into effect until the 2026-2027 school year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, many preparations must still be made for a smooth transition.&nbsp;For instance, the shift in middle and high school start times will likely impact elementary school hours too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Polk County Public Schools wants all stakeholders to share their insights and help prepare for this upcoming shift in school start times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The District Advisory Council, a volunteer-based group, is hosting the Education Town Hall series to share information on this important topic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">DAC members will be joined by a panel of experts in education and school operations to answer questions and collect feedback from the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The event will be held from 6 p.m. \u2013 7:30 p.m. at the following dates and locations:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Monday, March 25&nbsp;\u2013 Jim Miles Professional Development Center, 4270 Wallace Rd, Lakeland<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thursday, March 28&nbsp;\u2013 Stuart Center<br>1702 S. Holland Parkway, Bartow<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Monday, April 1&nbsp;\u2013 Dream Center of Lakeland<br>635 W 5th St., Lakeland<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Monday, April 8&nbsp;\u2013 AdventHealth Fieldhouse<br>210 Cypress Gardens Blvd., Winter Haven<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Monday, April 22&nbsp;\u2013 Tom Fellows Community Center<br>207 North Boulevard West, Davenport<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Please join us and share your thoughts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Light refreshments will be available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jeanette Crowley<br>Director, Strategic Planning &amp; Partnerships<br>Email:&nbsp;<a href=\"mailto:jeanette.crowley@polk-fl.net\">jeanette.crowley@polk-fl.net<\/a><br>Phone: (863) 457-4708 x828<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s true, and this change will impact our entire community, including students, their families, school staff, afterschool programs, businesses and so many more! By July 1, 2026, school districts must&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[7655],"class_list":["post-42330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-schools","tag-did-you-know-that-a-new-state-law-will-soon-drastically-change-start-times-for-schools"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}