Orange County school leaders discovered on Tuesday just how tough it could be to move the high school start times later.

Studies show high school students need more sleep at night. However, Orange County Public Schools start so early it may be affecting their ability to learn.

"Brain changes in puberty make it very difficult to sleep before about 11 or 11:30 at night, even if they have no social media, no cellphone, no homework," said University of Central Florida professor Valerie Sims.

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In Orange County, high school start times in the morning happen between 7:10 a.m. and 7:30 a.m.

"We've heard from dozens upon dozens of parents that kids have to get up at 5:30, 6 a.m. to make that school bus, sometimes that's a ride of an hour or so," said School Board Chairman Bill Sublette. "Really there's undisputed evidence from academia, from the American Academy of Pediatrics, even from the CDC that high school should not start before 8:30 a.m."

But pushing back school start times isn't as easy as it sounds. It's a costly logistics puzzle.

School transportation officials broke down the numbers: 70,000 students are transferred every day to 186 schools. The district has close to 1,000 buses, and most of those buses serve two routes, one for high school and one for an elementary or middle school.

The school board also learned something surprising -- not all Orange County high schools have the same number of hours in class. Some schools are in session for 6 hours and 45 minutes, and others are in session for 7 hours and 10 minutes.

"That would mean the purchase of new buses at about $110,000 per bus and then hiring a new bus driver and or monitor for each of those, the fuel costs, the salary, the insurance, the maintenance," said School Boardmember Linda Kobert.

Parents, however, worry about safety concerns as kids wait in the dark for school buses. Both kids and parents hope the district will come up with a solution for next year.

"Right now I have to get up at 5:30 and I go to sleep around 10 or 11 and you don't really get enough sleep," said University High School student Jade Leon.

"You have so many assignments, homework, projects. You need more sleep. The more sleep the better."