SFUSD School Start Times

In late April, SFUSD will be distributing a survey to better understand family and staff preferences for start and end times, which had changed in August 2021 as a way to comply with SB-328, support common planning time for teachers, and optimize school bus transportation routes.

The current start times for SFUSD schools will continue to be in effect for the 2022-23 School Year, except for the three remaining K-8 schools (Alice Fong Yu, Claire Lilienthal and Rooftop) that will be transitioning to the 9:30 a.m. start time effective Fall 2022. 

To honor our commitment to gather feedback and engage families and staff during our planning process, we are inviting all elementary and K-8 families and staff to participate in a 3-minute survey to help us better understand experiences with start and end times.

What we hope to achieve from this survey:

• Hear from families and staff what their preferences are between the 3 start times (7:50am, 8:40am, 9:30am)
• Learn how important start times are to families when selecting a school
• Discover how well the current bell times are working for school communities

The results of the survey will be used to: 

• Help us learn about the impacts of bell times to daily schedules
• Inform the design of new elementary school zones
• Help us determine whether any changes may need to be made to start times in 2024-25 and beyond

A unique survey link will be distributed to all elementary and K-8 school communities via email. Please note that each survey link can only be used once to submit survey responses. 

We will try to leave the survey open as long as possible, to ensure all impacted families and staff have a chance to provide input before the school year ends.

This input is valuable to us. Responses will remain confidential, and can only be accessed by the bell time research team and central office staff at SFUSD. Data will be stored on a secure computer.

Participation in this survey is voluntary. SFUSD staff and families have the right not to participate, or to stop participating at any time. 

If you have questions about this online survey or alternative ways to take it (e.g. via phone), please contact belltimesurvey@sfusd.edu. If you wish to speak to someone independent of the research team, please contact the Northwestern Institutional Review Board at irb@northwestern.edu or (312) 503-9338.