VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – Virginia Beach City Public Schools is offering a survey for students, staff members, parents and Virginia Beach community members whether they are in favor of shifting school start times or maintaining the current schedule.

The survey will be live through Wednesday, November 20. If you’d like to participate in the survey, click here.

The School Board of the City of Virginia Beach approved a resolution in November 2018, for Virginia Beach City Public Schools to find a new school start time schedule that would have young students starting school later.

The new school start time for the schools is suppose to start in September of 2020.

Community meetings were offered to provide information about the medical research behind the change in schedule as well as the development process of the options. In May 2019, Virginia Beach parents, students, community members and staff were given the opportunity to weigh in on four options to changes on the school start times schedule.

See the results of the survey here.

After reviewing previous survey results and transportation needs, including multiple scheduling implications, VBCPS officials recommend introducing a four-tier ‘elementary-middle-high model’. This proposed start time would allow high schoolers to start later, prevent most elementary students from waiting for buses before 7 a.m. and wouldn’t require a major addition of buses and drivers.

Virginia Beach City Public Schools has been researching and discussing the possibility of changing school start times since 2015. Medical research points to the benefits of later start times for adolescents due to significant changes in their sleep patterns and the current high school schedule doesn’t align with the research, according to school officials.

After reviewing previous survey results and transportation needs, including multiple scheduling implications, VBCPS made the recommendation of having the survey help make the final decision.