Tacoma Public Schools bell schedule change

TACOMA, Wash. - Tacoma Public Schools announced that it will be changing its bell schedule for most students starting in the 2024-25 school year.

The district is the third largest in the state and is comprised of 36 elementary schools, 13 middle schools and 11 high schools. It serves approximately 28,000 students.

With the new change, class would start later for high school students, and middle school students would start earlier.

However, not all elementary schools will have a bell schedule change. The district will release the impacted schools at the end of May.

According to the district, transportation changes to bus route schedules impacted school bell schedules for the 2024-25 school year.

"We began exploring changes to our transportation model to right-size the budget for the future, we compared our transportation system to the other districts in our cohort. In that analysis, we saw that we were operating with the least efficiency. The other districts with similar transportation numbers were tiering start times as a way to gain more efficiency in their pick-up and drop-off. These updates reduce the number of bus routes, which will save about $1 million in transportation costs per year," the district told FOX 13 in an email.

The new bell schedule is as follows for the 2024-25 school year:

High school:

Currently 7:35 a.m. to 2:05 p.m. Will change to 8:05 a.m. start time and a 2:35 p.m. release.

Middle school:

Currently 8:15 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. Will change to a 7:40 a.m. start time and a 2:10 p.m. release.

Elementary schools:

Currently 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Some schools will maintain this schedule. Those that will change will have an 8:40 a.m. to 3:10 p.m. school year (these schools will be announced at the end of next month).

"We know that changing bell schedules has an impact on families. Currently, all our school levels have different bell schedules. We considered many factors, including input we’ve received from families over the years, including the desire for high school to have a later start. We continue to work with partners to provide before and after-school care for families. Additionally, through Beyond the Bell and Club B we will continue to offer afterschool programming at all elementary and middle schools," the district told FOX 13 in an email.

My Ride K-12 app

Another reminder for district parents: The school bus app currently offered for families will be retired on May 1, 2024. Families will need to download the free My Ride K-12 and start using it.

"My Ride K-12 allows families to access their secure data for their child’s bus stop location, route and pickup time from their phone," the district wrote.

You can learn more about the app on the district's website.

Once you download My Ride K-12, search for Tacoma Public Schools and register for an account. After you confirm your email, log in again and add/link your students. You will need to know your child’s student ID. (If you used the former application, Ride 360, you don’t need a new account; you can log in with your existing credentials.)

Download the app from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.