Nearly two-thousand parents have given their feedback on the Upper Canada District School Board’s plans to change bell times.
The board has been looking into altering bell times since last spring, planning to start elementary students earlier and secondary students later.
After hosting some information sessions for parents in November, the board put out a feedback form they could fill out, and it received 1,856 responses.
Staff say nearly 60 percent of the responses came from parents whose children were in 6th grade or lower, and 25 percent had children in grades 9 through 12.
The most common concerns they had were regarding family work arrangements, extracurricular activities like sports, and childcare before and after school.
Board staff say research shows teenage students need more sleep than younger kids, which is why the UCDSB plans to change bell times.
Director of Education Ron Ferguson says the board is in talks with Student Transportation of Eastern Ontario and the Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario about the change.
However, there’s still no timeline for when it could come into effect.