New School Start Times
Board Approves Adjusted Start Times Beginning in 2026-2027
The Metro Nashville Board of Education has approved a balanced adjustment to school start and end times beginning in the 2026–27 school year. The decision follows months of community engagement, research review, and technical analysis to ensure the plan supports student learning while remaining workable for families and staff.
The approved approach makes targeted, moderate changes across the district rather than a full system redesign.
What is Changing?
Beginning in the 2026–27 school year, start and end times for zoned schools with MNPS-provided transportation will adjust as follows:
High Schools
High schools will start 20 minutes later
- Start: 7:25 a.m.
- Dismissal: 2:25 p.m.
Elementary Schools and Early Learning Centers
Elementary schools and Early Learning Centers will generally shift 10 minutes later
- Start: 8:10 a.m.
- Elementary dismissal: 3:10 p.m.
- Early Learning Center dismissal: 2:10 p.m.
Middle Schools
Middle school start and dismissal times will remain the same
- Start: 8:55 a.m.
- Dismissal: 3:55 p.m.
For most families, the impact will be limited to a 10- or 20-minute adjustment. Many magnet programs, academies, and special program schedules will not change.
Why This Approach?
This plan reflects three priorities and areas of improvement:
- Student well-being: Later high school start times better align with research on adolescent sleep.
- Family routines: Adjustments were intentionally limited to avoid widespread disruption.
- Operational feasibility: Changes were designed to work within the existing transportation system.
Rather than restructuring the entire schedule, the district focused on making meaningful improvements where feedback and research showed the greatest need.
How Community Feedback Shaped the Decision
The school start time review began in fall 2025 and included surveys, focus groups, town halls, and school-based conversations. More than 23,000 responses were collected from families, students, staff, and community members across the district in multiple languages.
Feedback consistently showed that while the current tiered structure generally works for families, early high school start times can be challenging for many students. More extensive options were explored, including larger shifts to later start times and swapping tier structures, but were not recommended due to childcare impacts, transportation complexity, and strong feedback against later middle school dismissal times.
The approved plan reflects that input by making targeted adjustments while preserving overall stability.
What Is Not Changing
- The three-tier transportation structure will remain in place.
- Middle school dismissal times are not moving later.
- No new transportation tiers are being added.
- Many magnet, academy, and special program schedules remain unchanged.
- The changes will not take effect until the 2026–27 school year.
These guardrails were intentional to ensure improvements could be made without introducing new challenges for families and staff.
What Happens Next?
Following the Board’s approval, MNPS will continue detailed implementation planning, including transportation route adjustments, system configuration, and coordination with schools and staff. Transportation adjustments focus on targeted route rebalancing, limited bus stop consolidation where appropriate, and schedule padding, rather than large-scale changes to how the system operates.
Families and employees will receive additional, school-specific information as planning progresses ahead of the 2026–27 school year.
Start and End Times for Each School
Some schools keep their current schedule.
