A new California law pushes back school start times. Here’s when class begins around Sacramento

The school day will start a little later all over California this year, meaning changing routines for students and families as they head back to class over the next few weeks.

School districts are pushing back start times to comply with a new law that requires class to begin later in the morning.

Based on studies suggesting that adolescents are happier and higher-performing when they are able to sleep longer, the law prohibits California middle schools from starting before 8 a.m. and high schools from starting before 8:30 a.m. The law does not formally apply to elementary schools, but some districts will still alter starting times for some elementary schools to accommodate transportation schedules.

The law has been contentious because of its potential effects on families who rely on public schools for childcare. Then-Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a school start-time bill in 2018, facing opposition from the California Teacher’s Association, which argued that lower-income families would be the most impacted by the change in their schedules.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the law in October 2019, allowing schools until July 1, 2022 to implement the changes. As the start of school nears, Sacramento-area schools are making final adjustments.

“It might be too early to know the exact effects of shifting later for some schools until we’re in the thick of it and families are making it part of their daily routine,” said Raj Rai, a spokeswoman for San Juan Unified School District. “At this point, our sites are focusing on making sure parents know about the new starting time and that they have the information they need.”

Elk Grove Unified, the largest district in the region, made significant changes to schedules at its high schools because of the law. Some schools in the district, including Laguna Creek and Sheldon High School, started classes as early as 7:45 a.m. prior to the new law and must now begin at 8:30.

The changes are more subtle elsewhere, including on some Sacramento City Unified campuses. Schools like C.K. McClatchy High School, which originally began at 8:20, have had to make only minimal adjustments to align themselves with the new guidelines.

Adapting to a new school schedule

Some districts, like San Juan Unified, have been anticipating the law for several years. In the spring of 2017, the district’s school board voted to begin shifting start times five minutes later each year, beginning in the 2017-2018 academic term.

The five-minute change moved the district “incrementally closer to a later start time,” according to Rai, but it was not adopted by all San Juan Unified schools, many of which began at different times. The law, Rai said, has helped standardize the process of shifting to a uniformly later schedule district-wide.

“The passage of (the law) really got us to align across the board,” Rai said. “Before, we had school sites starting at different times, but now all of our high schools start at 8:30, our middle schools at 8, and all of our elementaries at 7:45 or 8:55, depending on the bus route.”

Natomas Unified also adopted a graduated approach. The district shifted each of its four high schools forward by about 15 minutes in both the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 academic years, Natomas Unified spokeswoman Deidra Powell explained.

For other districts, schools will feel the effects of the law for the first time. Schools in Rocklin Unified, Elk Grove Unified and Sacramento City Unified will all change their first period times this year to align with the new schedule.

In Sacramento City Unified, spokesman Brian Heap said the starting times of eight high schools will be adjusted. Similar changes are being made in the nine high schools in Elk Grove Unified, which will adjust to meet the 8:30 a.m. starting time requirement.

To ensure adequate pick-up time, some high schools in Rocklin Unified will begin even later than is required by law, according to spokesman Sundeep Dosanjh. The district’s two comprehensive high schools will now start at 8:45 a.m., while the alternative high school will now begin at 9:00 a.m.

‘Reminding’ Sacramento parents

Adapting to the changes, Powell said, has meant a continuous process of “reminding and reminding and reminding” parents in the district of the incoming changes to their routines.

Heap said he had not received much formal feedback from families regarding the changes. As a parent in the district, however, he said he had heard some concerns raised anecdotally by others about how the changes will affect family schedules.

“Among my group of friends, there are parents of sports kids, in particular, who don’t like the change,” Heap said. “So if my daughter normally has tennis practice at three in the afternoon, now it’s being pushed back to four in the afternoon, which means by the the time she finishes tennis practice it’s six… I think that if there’s any resistance, that’s where you might hear the most of it.”

Rai added that some San Juan Unified families had expressed uncertainty about the effects of the schedule changes on parents who might be needed at work before their children’s school days begin. In response, both after-school and before-school programs will be offered at more sites in the district, and some programs have had additional seats added.