School Start/End Times Committee
School Start and End Times Feedback Survey - OPEn Now!
The district is planning a proposed change to school start and end times, potentially beginning as early as the 2026-2027 school year. The survey linked below seeks feedback from students, families, staff, and community members to help the district and School Board determine whether there is broad support for adjusting school start and end times, and when those changes should take effect.
The survey will be open until 5 pm on Friday, January 30 and is available in multiple languages below.
Edmonds School Start Time Survey - English
Encuesta de hora de inicio de escuelas del Distrito Escolar de Edmonds- SpanishKhảo sát về Thời gian Bắt đầu đi Học của Học khu Edmonds - Vietnamese
استبيان وقت بدء الدراسة بمنطقة إدموندز التعليمية - العائلات -Arabic
Опрос о времени начала занятий в школах школьного округа Эдмондс — Russian
Опитування щодо часу початку занять у шкільному окрузі Едмондс — Ukrainian
Overview
The Edmonds School District is reviewing and exploring potential adjustments to school start times. During the 2023-24 school year, the district and the Edmonds Education Association created a joint committee of staff, students, and families to study school start and end times. In May 2024, a districtwide survey gathered family input on possible changes, revealing community interest in starting high school later in the morning. A second survey in March 2025 presented two specific options, and feedback from that survey led to removing one from consideration. Two questions remain: Do we support the proposed change in start and end times? And if so, when should the changes take effect?
Why Consider Changes?
Why Consider Changes?
Research suggests that later start times for high school students improve academic outcomes, attendance, and well-being. Benefits include:
- Higher attendance and graduation rates
- Better academic performance and state test scores
- Reduced depression, caffeine use, and substance abuse risk
- Fewer car accidents among teen drivers
Meanwhile, studies indicate that earlier start times for elementary students have little to no negative impact on academic success. Some research even suggests improved math scores for certain student groups.
Key Considerations
There are some additional considerations that the committee felt important to share as we consider any proposals to change middle and high school start times to later.
- Many high school students have jobs after school or have family childcare responsibilities for younger siblings and late dismissal times could have an impact on these obligations.
- Roughly 50 percent of middle and high school students participate in extracurricular activities and athletics and later start times could result in missed instructional time due to the need to release them from school for athletic contest start times.
- Moving high and middle school start and end times later will mean that elementary schools will start and end earlier. We will need to work with our childcare partners to ensure adequate childcare is available both before and after school.
Current & Proposed Start Time Models
Currently, our district’s transportation system operates on a four-tier model:
- Tier 1: 7:20 AM - 1:52 PM - All high schools
- Tier 2: 8:05 AM - 2:35 PM - All middle schools and 3 elementary schools
- Tier 3: 8:45 AM - 3:15 PM - 12 elementary schools
- Tier 4: 9:25 AM - 3:55 PM - 8 elementary schools
In most situations, bus pick up and drop off times are around 40 minutes prior to the start/end of school.