- It's too expensive to Start School Later.
- Aren't we coddling our kids by allowing them to Start School Later?
- Teenagers need to take responsibility. Early starts teach responsibility.
- If we start school later, students will just go to bed later.
- Kids just need to adhere to a good bedtime.
- It’s safer to start high schools first instead of elementary schools.
- Extracurricular activities will suffer.
- School start time is not a federal issue. It should be determined by local districts.
- There's nothing wrong with the way things are now. We did it and turned out just fine.
It's too expensive to start school later.
The idea that the only way to return to later, healthier school start times is to reroute or add buses at exorbitant costs is a myth. Communities that have put student health and well-being first have found a variety of creative solutions, sometimes even saving money in the process. Below are just a few examples:
Other "out-of-box" solutions are out there, including, but not limited to:
- Santa Rosa County (FL) school district saved millions when it changed to later school start times in 2006. High schools start between 9 and 9:25 a.m. Elementary schools start at 7:30 a.m. This is a very highly ranked Florida public school system with competitive (football district champion!) athletic teams.
- The Wilton (CT) School District maintained its three-tiered bus schedule (which is generally thought to save money), and achieved a more appropriate starting time for teenagers by flipping the upper elementary start, at 8:15 a.m., with the 7:35 a.m middle school/high school start.
- Schools in Moore County, NC created a dual-route bus system in which elementary schools and high schools share buses on separate routes. School officials estimate that the changes save about $700,000 a year.The plan shifted high school start times 45 minutes later, with school beginning at 9 am and dismissing at 4 p.m.
- West Des Moines School District in IA found a way to start high schools later by reducing the number of buses needed, saving the district $700,000 annually.
- In the Mahtomedi School District (MN), high schools found a way to start 35 minutes later by shortening passing periods, another no cost solution. An added bonus: no impact on after-school activities, better attendance, and less sleeping in class.
- Jessamine County, KY moved its high school start from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. without adding bus drivers. Middle schools now start at 8:50 a.m. and elementary schools at 8 a.m.
- Arlington, VA changed high school start times from 7:30 a.m. to 8:19 a.m. without increased expenditure of resources.
- Fairfax County Public Schools in VA have been provided with both low-cost and no-cost options to move their high school start times to 8:00 a.m. or later by an independent consultant.
Other "out-of-box" solutions are out there, including, but not limited to:
- Consolidating busing to provide service more efficiently where it is actually being used
- Providing sidewalks, safer paths, and walkways to allow more students the ability to walk or bike to school during daylight hours
- Allowing for online class periods or "virtual learning"
- Providing elective bus service, where riders pay for bus service
- Replacing private bus service with public transportation
Aren't we coddling our kids by allowing them to Start School Later?
Requiring high schools to start after 8:30 or 9:00 a.m. is no more coddling kids than installing car seats or booster seats in automobiles or eliminating indoor smoking in public locations. The latter interventions were originally seen as inappropriate and unnecessary but, with newer research, came to be viewed as mainstream public health measures. There is now ample evidence showing that taking steps to ensure safe, health school hours is no different.
Children might be said to be "coddled" when a parent or caregiver gives them something they don't really need merely to pacify them. Ensuring conditions that allow enough sleep is hardly in this category. Sleep is just as necessary as nutrition and exercise. And early school hours make adequate sleep impossible for many if not most adolescent students. One has to ask why it seems acceptable, even praiseworthy, to ensure that children have physical activity and enough to eat, but somehow indulgent to ensure that they have enough sleep.
Children might be said to be "coddled" when a parent or caregiver gives them something they don't really need merely to pacify them. Ensuring conditions that allow enough sleep is hardly in this category. Sleep is just as necessary as nutrition and exercise. And early school hours make adequate sleep impossible for many if not most adolescent students. One has to ask why it seems acceptable, even praiseworthy, to ensure that children have physical activity and enough to eat, but somehow indulgent to ensure that they have enough sleep.
Teenagers need to
take responsibility. Early starts prepare teens for the real world.
Although many people seem to think otherwise, teenagers are still children - and growing ones at that. They are not adults, and their growing brain and bodies need on average 8.5 - 9.25 hours of sleep per night. Many teens simply cannot fall asleep before 11 p.m., due to shifted circadian rhythms (body clocks). Yes, poor planning, electronic and other distractions, and poor parenting can certainly contribute to the problem, but the fact that these circadian rhythm shifts appear in adolescent mammals as well as adolescent humans suggests that there's more to the story here than irresponsibility.
This is not a matter of will. It's a matter of biology. Allowing teenagers to drive while sleep deprived to teach them responsibility is comparable to giving a drunk driver keys to his car and expecting him to be responsible about it. And just because something must be done at a later point in life does not make it appropriate earlier in life. Asking teenagers to deprive themselves of sleep to "prepare" for the real world is like asking toddlers to skip their naps to prepare for fifth grade.
Secondary school also have some very significant differences with both college, military service, or employment. Very few colleges start classes before 8 a.m., and that most colleges give students the option of choosing classes that start later in the day. Very few jobs run from 7 a.m. until 2 p.m. either, nor do they involve doing calculus at 7 a.m. or going home with hours or homework every night. Furthermore, most people have some degree of choice in the hours they keep as adults. Middle and high school students are required by law to keep to schedules set by their school systems unless they have the means to home school or attend a private school.
This is not a matter of will. It's a matter of biology. Allowing teenagers to drive while sleep deprived to teach them responsibility is comparable to giving a drunk driver keys to his car and expecting him to be responsible about it. And just because something must be done at a later point in life does not make it appropriate earlier in life. Asking teenagers to deprive themselves of sleep to "prepare" for the real world is like asking toddlers to skip their naps to prepare for fifth grade.
Secondary school also have some very significant differences with both college, military service, or employment. Very few colleges start classes before 8 a.m., and that most colleges give students the option of choosing classes that start later in the day. Very few jobs run from 7 a.m. until 2 p.m. either, nor do they involve doing calculus at 7 a.m. or going home with hours or homework every night. Furthermore, most people have some degree of choice in the hours they keep as adults. Middle and high school students are required by law to keep to schedules set by their school systems unless they have the means to home school or attend a private school.
If we start school later, students will just go
to bed later.
This common misconception seems reasonable enough. But contrary to expectation, it has not proven true in studies of
students who have had their schools shift to later start times. The landmark school start time study by Kyla Wahlstrom at the University of Minnesota howed that starting school about 1/2 hour later resulted in teens getting a full hour of extra sleep each school night. Several subsequent studies have found the same thing: when schools move to later morning starts, students consistently got more sleep per school night because they went to bed at or near
the same time each night and were able to rise later in the morning. Full citations and a discussion of this topic are available at http://schoolstarttime.org/delaying-school-start-times/will-students-squander-opportunity-extra-sleep/.
Kids just need to
adhere to a good bedtime.
There's no question that student sleep can improve by reducing exposure to distractions, such as TV,
cell phones, and computers and following other basic tenets of healthy "sleep hygiene." However, sleep
research shows that even teens with impeccable "sleep hygiene" cannot possibly get enough sleep if they need to get up in time to make 7 a.m. school bells or even earlier buses. This is because most simply cannot fall asleep before about until 11 p.m., the time when most teenagers and young adult start producing enough melatonin, the hormone
believed to help regulate sleep.
Teenagers require on average 8.5 – 9.25 hours of sleep per night, which is more than most adults require. For a teenager to get enough sleep for a 7:00 a.m. school start or a 5:30 am wake up call, she would have to be in bed and fast asleep by 8:30 p.m. Homework, extracurriculars, and electronics aside, this bedtime is counter to the natural, biological makeup of most high school students. Because of the shifted times in which adolescent brains produce melatonin, even the best laid plans often result in the teenager staring at the ceiling until well after 11 p.m.
The graphic below describes the way early school starts are, by design, creating a nation of sleep deprived teens.
Teenagers require on average 8.5 – 9.25 hours of sleep per night, which is more than most adults require. For a teenager to get enough sleep for a 7:00 a.m. school start or a 5:30 am wake up call, she would have to be in bed and fast asleep by 8:30 p.m. Homework, extracurriculars, and electronics aside, this bedtime is counter to the natural, biological makeup of most high school students. Because of the shifted times in which adolescent brains produce melatonin, even the best laid plans often result in the teenager staring at the ceiling until well after 11 p.m.
The graphic below describes the way early school starts are, by design, creating a nation of sleep deprived teens.
The Teen Sleep Crunch, from "Snooze or Lose", by Dr. Helene Emssellem
It’s safer to start high schools first instead of elementary schools.
Many school systems currently start high schools first and then recirculate buses two or three times to ferry middle and elementary school students to school later in the morning - an efficient and cost-saving approach. It is often suggested that high school and elementary schools hours be flipped so that high schools can start later at no additional cost. Such proposals usually meet with huge public outcry about the dangers of having first graders standing outside waiting for buses at 6 a.m.
What is overlooked in this outcry is that it is also unsafe to have 15-year-old girls standing on dark corners alone at 6 a.m. or to send new, sleep-deprived teen drivers out onto the roads at that time. According to a 2008 study, for example, found that the weekday crash rate among high schoolers in Virginia Beach, where classes began at 7:20-7:25 a.m. was significantly higher than in adjacent Chesapeake, VA, where classes started at 8:40-8:45. Another study in Fayette County, KY linked a move to a later high school start time to a drop in the rate of teen car crashes.
It’s not safe for any child, even a high school student, to walk to school or wait for buses in the dark. Age does nothing to make pedestrians more visible to drivers. Transportation departments should work to arrange bus runs and school opening times to keep ALL students safe, not just the youngest ones. The following stories point to tragedies that could have been averted with a later school start time. The cost of continuing to ignore the safety risks with early school start times is a high price to pay.
In Cary, NC, a 12-year old boy was struck prior to 7:00a.m. at his bus stop. A 13-year old girl in Fall River, MA was struck near her bus stop at 6:23a.m. More recently, a 9 year old girl was struck and killed in Westwood, OH in the early morning darkness while waiting for her bus.
Additionally, the early morning hours pose other risks to children. In Fairfax, VA, a 15 year old girl was sexually assaulted while waiting at her school bus stop at 6:20a.m.
In October 2012, a 16-year old student was killed when attempting to walk in pre-dawn, overcast conditions to her high school in Germantown, MD.
In December 2012, a student attempting to get to school in Laurel, MD during predawn hours was killed. This marks the third student pedestrian fatality at Fort Meade High School in Anne Arundel County, MD. in the school year.
In March 2013, a student was struck and injured by a vehicle while walking to school in the early morning in Watkins Mill, MD. A 55-year old man was killed in Gaithersburg, MD by a school bus traveling on a busy intersection at 6:30am only a week later.
Ensuring the safety of our children and others by eliminating early, darkened, unsafe bus stops and walking routes must become more of a priority than the expense of bus runs.
What is overlooked in this outcry is that it is also unsafe to have 15-year-old girls standing on dark corners alone at 6 a.m. or to send new, sleep-deprived teen drivers out onto the roads at that time. According to a 2008 study, for example, found that the weekday crash rate among high schoolers in Virginia Beach, where classes began at 7:20-7:25 a.m. was significantly higher than in adjacent Chesapeake, VA, where classes started at 8:40-8:45. Another study in Fayette County, KY linked a move to a later high school start time to a drop in the rate of teen car crashes.
It’s not safe for any child, even a high school student, to walk to school or wait for buses in the dark. Age does nothing to make pedestrians more visible to drivers. Transportation departments should work to arrange bus runs and school opening times to keep ALL students safe, not just the youngest ones. The following stories point to tragedies that could have been averted with a later school start time. The cost of continuing to ignore the safety risks with early school start times is a high price to pay.
In Cary, NC, a 12-year old boy was struck prior to 7:00a.m. at his bus stop. A 13-year old girl in Fall River, MA was struck near her bus stop at 6:23a.m. More recently, a 9 year old girl was struck and killed in Westwood, OH in the early morning darkness while waiting for her bus.
Additionally, the early morning hours pose other risks to children. In Fairfax, VA, a 15 year old girl was sexually assaulted while waiting at her school bus stop at 6:20a.m.
In October 2012, a 16-year old student was killed when attempting to walk in pre-dawn, overcast conditions to her high school in Germantown, MD.
In December 2012, a student attempting to get to school in Laurel, MD during predawn hours was killed. This marks the third student pedestrian fatality at Fort Meade High School in Anne Arundel County, MD. in the school year.
In March 2013, a student was struck and injured by a vehicle while walking to school in the early morning in Watkins Mill, MD. A 55-year old man was killed in Gaithersburg, MD by a school bus traveling on a busy intersection at 6:30am only a week later.
Ensuring the safety of our children and others by eliminating early, darkened, unsafe bus stops and walking routes must become more of a priority than the expense of bus runs.
Extracurricular activities will suffer.
Schools start and end at very different times all over the country (and the world). Whether they dismiss at 1:40 p.m. or 3:30 p.m., schools manage to support athletics and other extracurricular activities. When communities change their school hours, the whole community adjusts accordingly. This is precisely what happened when many schools moved start times earlier in the 1980’s. Just because something is done a certain way now doesn’t mean it’s the only, or the best, way to do things.
The evidence bears this out: starting school after 8:30 a.m. does not harm, and may even help, extracurricular performance. Here are just a few examples from the world of sports:
None of this even considers the potential benefits to athletes (or anyone!) of getting enough sleep. A Stanford University study, released in March 2011 found that athletes who sleep more perform better, and in October 2012,the American Academy of Pediatrics cited another study showing that "[a]dolescent athletes who slept eight or more hours each night were 68 percent less likely to be injured than athletes who regularly slept less." That is part of the reason why coaches from schools that have moved the school day later have surprisingly positive things to say about the change.
The evidence bears this out: starting school after 8:30 a.m. does not harm, and may even help, extracurricular performance. Here are just a few examples from the world of sports:
- After Wilton, CT
pushed their school start time later, the school won several state
championships.
- Loudon County, VA has a top ranked football and girls
soccer program with athletes earning athletic scholarships. The starting bell at Loudoun high schools is 9:00 a.m.
- The high school start times for members of the Parade's All-America Football Team shows that school hours have nothing to do with the possibility of athletic excellence. Twenty of the star athletes go to schools that start at 8:00am or later. 13 start earlier than 8:00am. The remaining 13 athletes did not have start times available.
None of this even considers the potential benefits to athletes (or anyone!) of getting enough sleep. A Stanford University study, released in March 2011 found that athletes who sleep more perform better, and in October 2012,the American Academy of Pediatrics cited another study showing that "[a]dolescent athletes who slept eight or more hours each night were 68 percent less likely to be injured than athletes who regularly slept less." That is part of the reason why coaches from schools that have moved the school day later have surprisingly positive things to say about the change.
School start time is not a federal issue. It should be determined by local districts.
Many aspects of school policy are regulated by state and federal government, particularly when local school systems cannot or will not set policies to protect basic rights, including rights to health, safety, and education. This has been proven to be the case with respect to the issue of school start times since the 1990's.
Specific school hours must be set locally to reflect specific demographics, topography, values, and budgets. However, establishing a barebones minimum before which schools should not begin mandated instruction is as fundamental as requiring schools to turn on the heat when the temperature falls below a certain level. The idea of setting a minimum standard is simply to provide a boundary to protect children from being forced to adhere to school starts that negatively impact their health and safety. Whether this minimum is set through law or regulation, and whether, ultimately, it is set at a federal, state, or even local level, it needs to be established to protect children.
Starting school at later, safe, healthy hours is universally beneficial to all children. This is along the same vein as Child Labor Laws and Child Car Seat Restraint Laws.
The United States has a long history of recognizing the protection of health and safety as a core function of government, and over the years many measures to protect individuals from harm originally thought of as overly intrusive or misguided are now accepted as essential. Many federal mandates have been enacted to ensure minimum levels of health and safety for all children. A few examples are:
Because many local school districts have competing interests, such as cutting costs, politics and logistics, they have not always put the safety and welfare of children as the utmost priority. This is why a federal mandate or related regulation is a sensible and well-precedented way to preserve the health, safety, and well-being of all children.
Specific school hours must be set locally to reflect specific demographics, topography, values, and budgets. However, establishing a barebones minimum before which schools should not begin mandated instruction is as fundamental as requiring schools to turn on the heat when the temperature falls below a certain level. The idea of setting a minimum standard is simply to provide a boundary to protect children from being forced to adhere to school starts that negatively impact their health and safety. Whether this minimum is set through law or regulation, and whether, ultimately, it is set at a federal, state, or even local level, it needs to be established to protect children.
Starting school at later, safe, healthy hours is universally beneficial to all children. This is along the same vein as Child Labor Laws and Child Car Seat Restraint Laws.
The United States has a long history of recognizing the protection of health and safety as a core function of government, and over the years many measures to protect individuals from harm originally thought of as overly intrusive or misguided are now accepted as essential. Many federal mandates have been enacted to ensure minimum levels of health and safety for all children. A few examples are:
- Federal nutrition standards for school meals
- Federally mandated school wellness policies
- Federal gun free schools / zero tolerance
Because many local school districts have competing interests, such as cutting costs, politics and logistics, they have not always put the safety and welfare of children as the utmost priority. This is why a federal mandate or related regulation is a sensible and well-precedented way to preserve the health, safety, and well-being of all children.
There's nothing wrong with the way things are now. We did it and we turned out just fine.
There is a prevailing notion that children should be able to wake and start school earlier because farmers woke early, because children of yesteryear walked long distances to school, and because generations before experienced extreme hardships and survived.
In the case of farmers, while they were up at dawn to perform work, they also had long periods of rest during the day and during the winter season when the ground rested. Additionally, farmers did not have the requirements of homework, sports, and extra-curricular activities in addition to a minimum required number of hours of instructional time that today's children are expected to have in order to gain college admission and compete for gainful employment.
According to the National Research Center for Women and Families, (NRC), most schools in the 1950's and 1960's started between 8:30-9:00 a.m. The extremely early starts to the 7:00 hour were the direct result of staggering start times of high schools, middle schools, and elementary schools in order to utilize fewer buses and drivers. Expecting children to adapt to the demands of rising earlier because that is what was always done is equivalent to expecting children to drink unpasteurized milk or ride bikes without helmets because that's what children did in the past.
Another fallacy is that conditions today are precisely like those of the past. Yes, many children today still walk to school, but walking today is often in the dark and involves wrestling with high traffic conditions and higher local speed limits that didn't exist in the 1960's and before.
Finally, the "good enough for us" mentality flies in the face of every parent's dream to give his or her children a better future. Farmers worked the soil and many parents sacrificed so their children could have a chance to go to college and have a better future. Most parents do not want their children to just survive. They work hard and raise their children so that their children can thrive. While there are differences of opinion on how parents achieve this, the research is clear: "early school schedules can undermine teenagers’ ability to learn, to drive safely, and to get along with others. They can even increase the likelihood of smoking, drug abuse, and teen pregnancy." (NRC) Remember: just because we can do something, doesn't mean we should.
The facts are clear: We DIDN'T do this (go to school so early), and we are not "just fine."
In the case of farmers, while they were up at dawn to perform work, they also had long periods of rest during the day and during the winter season when the ground rested. Additionally, farmers did not have the requirements of homework, sports, and extra-curricular activities in addition to a minimum required number of hours of instructional time that today's children are expected to have in order to gain college admission and compete for gainful employment.
According to the National Research Center for Women and Families, (NRC), most schools in the 1950's and 1960's started between 8:30-9:00 a.m. The extremely early starts to the 7:00 hour were the direct result of staggering start times of high schools, middle schools, and elementary schools in order to utilize fewer buses and drivers. Expecting children to adapt to the demands of rising earlier because that is what was always done is equivalent to expecting children to drink unpasteurized milk or ride bikes without helmets because that's what children did in the past.
Another fallacy is that conditions today are precisely like those of the past. Yes, many children today still walk to school, but walking today is often in the dark and involves wrestling with high traffic conditions and higher local speed limits that didn't exist in the 1960's and before.
Finally, the "good enough for us" mentality flies in the face of every parent's dream to give his or her children a better future. Farmers worked the soil and many parents sacrificed so their children could have a chance to go to college and have a better future. Most parents do not want their children to just survive. They work hard and raise their children so that their children can thrive. While there are differences of opinion on how parents achieve this, the research is clear: "early school schedules can undermine teenagers’ ability to learn, to drive safely, and to get along with others. They can even increase the likelihood of smoking, drug abuse, and teen pregnancy." (NRC) Remember: just because we can do something, doesn't mean we should.
The facts are clear: We DIDN'T do this (go to school so early), and we are not "just fine."
