Late Start - SB 328

SBCUSD Student high-fiving moms at the Mom Mob event

After carefully considering the impact that new school start times will have on students, families, and employees, the San Bernardino City Unified School District Board of Education selected the class schedule that most closely resembles the current schedule and is overwhelmingly supported by parents.

The new start and end times are effective the first day of school for the 2023–2024 school year, and are necessary to comply with Senate Bill 328 (Portantino Rule), which requires high schools to begin no earlier than 8:30 a.m. and middle schools no earlier than 8:00 a.m. SB 328 made California the first state in the U.S. to mandate later start times for teens due to evidence that their natural sleep-wake cycle is different from children and adults, making it harder for them to get a good night’s sleep if school starts too early.

SBCUSD began studying the impact of later start times for secondary students during the 2018–2019 school year and formed a Late Start Task Force to seek input from students, families, and employees. Families who provided input voiced various concerns, including lack of before- and after-school supervision for children and the length of time that younger students would be riding the school bus.

That’s why the Board of Education sought input from thousands of families, students, and employees for two years before selecting the schedule option that would have the least impact.

The option that the Board of Education selected and was also widely supported by families has elementary school students attending class from 8:50 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., as they do now, while middle school students will be in school from 8 a.m. to 2:31 p.m. High school students will attend class from 8:30 a.m. to 3:35 p.m., an hour later than this school year.

Current and New School Start Times

Elementary School
Current: 8:50 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.
New: 8:50 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.

Middle School
Current: 7:40 a.m. – 2:11 p.m.
New: 8:00 a.m. – 2:31 p.m.

High School
Current: 7:30 a.m. – 2:35 p.m.
New: 8:30 a.m. – 3:35 p.m.

REMINDER: First Day of School - July 31, 2023

The first day of school of the 2023-24 school year is July 31, 2023 and this day will follow a Minimum Day* schedule.

Elementary School	8:50 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Middle School	8:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
High School	8:30 a.m. - 1:20 p.m.

Anticipate longer drop off and pick up wait times.

Topics of Discussion

School Schedules

Elementary School
Regular Day: 8:50 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Collaboration Day Monday: 8:50 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Minimum Day: 8:50 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Middle School
Regular Day: 8:00 a.m. - 2:31 p.m.
Collaboration Day Monday: 9:45 a.m. - 2:35 p.m.
Minimum Day: 8:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

High School
Regular Day: 8:30 a.m. - 3:35 p.m.
Collaboration Day Monday: 9:45 a.m. - 2:50 p.m.
Minimum Day: 8:30 a.m. - 1:20 p.m.

Transportation

With the implementation of the new late start schedule, the District can no longer tier the busing schedule the way we currently are tiered. Therefore, the District sought out additional vendors for the start of the new school year.

Starting July 31st, the way our services being serviced will be a little different than what you currently see. Our current partner, Durham School Bus, will continue servicing only Elementary Special Needs students and any students leaving the District attending non-public schools. We have brought on a new provider, Zum, and they will be servicing all of our Secondary Special Needs students. And and additional new partner, First Student, will be providing transportation to all our K-12 General Education students.

One additional benefit of all the new providers will be that they will be providing new buses, and, unlike your priors for students coming in with a brand new fleet of buses with air conditioning. So, regardless of the service that your child will receive, all our buses, will have air conditioning.

With the District's inability to tier busing, we brought in additional partners to make sure we will meet our service needs, and we will be acquiring 200 additional routes out within the community. With that said, we will have a lot more new drivers, so as with anything we will provide every route, every stop location, but with the volume of new providers, will will expect some delays, but not too much.

Before- and After-School Programs

Before & After School Programs

Expanded Learning, formerly Sunrise/CAPS will be expanded to include all middle and high schools. Drop off remains the same for our elementary schools at 7:15 a.m. Middle school drop off time will be at 7:00 a.m. and high school drop off time will be 7:15 a.m.

Expanded Learning will be continued to be offered all schools from dismissal until 6:00 p.m.

Elementary School	7:15 a.m.
Middle School	7:00 a.m.
High School	7:15 a.m.

Need to Register for Expanded Learning?

For those parents who missed priority registration, we now have Open Registration.

To register:

Log into Aeries Parent Portal
Go to Student Information & Click on CAPS Registration
Click Add & choose program(s) interested in
Done!
A site lead will make contact with you during the summer regarding the start date

Resources for Parents

SB 328 School Late Start Townhall Meeting Powerpoint Presentation
SB 328 School Late Start Townhall Meeting Recording - ENGLISH | SPANISH
Registering for Expanded Learning, formerly known as Sunrise/CAPS - ENGLISH | SPANISH

USEFUL LINKS

In This Section