St. Cloud Lawmaker Introduces Bill on School Start Times

ST. PAUL -- A St. Cloud lawmaker wants some school kids to sleep in a little longer in the mornings. Republican Representative Tama Theis has introduced a bill again this session that says high schools can't start classes before 8:30 a.m. and bus pickup times for elementary kids can't start before 7:00 a.m.

We were seeing some school districts had already put this in place and they were seeing great results that exactly matched what we were hearing from the experts.

Theis says she's heard from concerned parents about kids having to get going for school when it is still dark out.

There are a lot of different concerns about starting really early, one being that the kids are out there really early in the morning.  For me I look out there at 6:50 a.m. and I see school kids out there and right now it's pretty dark.

This is the same bill Theis introduced last year, however, it did not get a hearing in the State House in the last session. She says she remains hopeful that it will get a hearing this time around.

Theis' bill, if passed, would have the new school start times go into effect in the 2021-2022 school year.