Nevada’s 17 school districts say it’s about local control. They – not the Nevada State Board of Education – are best suited to determine when a school day should start.
Why it matters: No one is arguing that students don’t need sleep, but school districts say last week’s advancement of a proposed regulation — requiring all high schools to start at 8 a.m. or later to enable students to sleep longer — will negatively impact students, their families, and the communities.
School districts also questioned whether the Nevada State Board of Education can regulate school start times. CCSD vowed to legally challenge this mandate, set to take effect in August 2025.
CCSD high schools typically start at 7 a.m., middle schools at 8 a.m., and elementary schools at 9 a.m.
If forced to carry out this regulation, CCSD’s three-tiered bus schedule (elementary, middle, and high school) could be reshuffled.
Changing start times for high schools, which might require adjusting starting times for elementary and middle schools because of bus schedules, could result in:
- Disruption of morning routines for students and parents, creating a hardship for many parents if schools start later than their work day begins
- Jeopardizing student safety, as students may be walking to and from school at dawn or dusk
- Decrease in sports participation, extracurricular after-school activities, and after-school employment
Alternatively, if CCSD merged bus transportation among all grade levels, creating a two-tier system, it would create an unfunded mandate. CCSD could have to spend $145 million to buy more buses and hire more drivers — money it doesn’t have.
Other District options include service reductions to offset the unfunded mandate’s costs:
- Bus service only for students who live five miles or more from school (instead of the current two miles or more)
- Eliminate transportation for magnet schools and career and technical academies
What’s next: Once the Legislative Counsel Bureau drafts regulatory language, the Nevada Department of Education will hold a hearing where the public can voice its opinion.
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