Fairfax County has been considering a slight shift in the starting times for all schools. This could mean schools starting later than their original time. This change was planned to only affect middle schools, but due to limited resources and given research, FCPS needed to implement a later time schedule for elementary, middle and high schools.
In 2011 FCPS surveyed 8th, 10th and 12th graders about their sleep schedules, and the data showed that two-thirds of students sleep seven hours or less for school on a daily basis. This contrasts to the recommended 8.5-9.5 hours of sleep necessary per school night.
Scheduling for these time shifts would be a problem for FCPS to do alone, so in the year of 2023, FCPS granted a contract to Prismatic Services Inc., to create a proper schedule of the new proposed start times.
Original school start times for all three levels are below:
Elementary: 8:00 a.m-3:15 p.m/ 9:20 a.m-4:05 p.m
Middle: 7:30.a.m-2:15 p.m
High: 8:10 a.m-2:55 p.m/ 8:00 a.m-2:45 p.m
In February 2025, plans were presented to the School Board of FCPS through a slideshow presentation, so the members of the board could decide their options. After some time, the School Board came up with two final options. Option one was developed by the transportation team of FCPS, while Option two was one of the plans presented to the School Board by Prismatic Services.
On October 6, 2025 the School Board staff provided a short survey for all FCPS school employees. The majority of the faculty members interviewed showed a preference for Option 2, because of how close the times were to the original school schedule.
School start times have a significant impact on students, but the possibility of changing start times will cause some serious alterations to the lives of school faculty as well.
Mr. Rauluk is a chemistry teacher for tenth graders and an AP chemistry teacher for eleventh graders in Centreville High School. Personally it will affect the way he tends to his four-year-old daughter’s daycare “Any teacher that has young kids is going to have to seriously consider how this is going to affect their pick up and drop off with their kids,” Mr. Rauluk says.
These later times will also affect teachers who have children in afterschool programs. Mr. Fehr, a physics teacher working in Centreville high school. Mr. Fehr has a son who does soccer practice after school, but is not taking the practices in Centreville Highschool. If these time shifts are put into place, there will also be some scheduling challenges when he is trying to bring his son to practice while staying in school later. With everything being pushed back, personal schedules will become much more difficult to manage.
“It’s a domino effect,” says Mrs. Schied. Mrs. Schied is currently an administrative assistant for Centreville Highschool. Later school days could also be a problem for afterschool programs and afterschool sports leaders. If school ends late, then afterschool programs will start late, which can be scheduling conflicting to both students and teachers.
Teachers have lives outside of school. It is crucial that when this new schedule is put in place, it can accommodate the many schedules of all individuals, because with just one change there can be multiple alterations to the lives of those who juggle not just on profession but multiple.
