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by Terra Ziporyn California has been the nation’s largest real‑world test case for a statewide policy on school start times ever since its landmark law took effect in 2022. Until now, most discussion of its impact relied on anecdotes or assumptions. That changed with the release of the first independent, statewide evaluation finally showing what happens when a state sets a clear floor on how early schools may start. The findings do more than reinforce decades of sleep science and years of advocacy. They demonstrate that statewide guardrails can be an efficient, equitable, and effective way to ensure healthy school hours. The evaluation documents measurable improvements in student sleep and well‑being, along with early signs of broader academic and mental health benefits. Just as importantly, it dispels persistent myths about logistical disruption or financial burden. For states and districts still debating whether a statewide minimum start time can “work,” this study offers the strongest real‑world evidence yet that it can—and that relying on voluntary local change alone leaves too many students unprotected. For a deeper analysis, see my full Substack post:  by Terra Ziporyn  Conversations about adolescent sleep so often drift toward the same familiar culprit: screens. It’s an easy explanation, and it lets us imagine that a few household rules could fix a crisis affecting millions of students. But focusing on phones and “better habits” obscures the real issue: school schedules that run counter to adolescent biology.
When we treat sleep deprivation as a matter of personal responsibility, we overlook the one intervention that consistently works: aligning school start times with what decades of research tell us about teen sleep. It's easy, and sometimes gratifying, to blame the victim, but shifting the conversation from blame to biology is critical if we are serious about meaningful change. Read the full Substack post here: https://terraziporyn.substack.com/p/the-screen-time-scapegoat by Terra Ziporyn  For years, communities have relied on a strong and consistent body of research showing that later school start times support adolescent health, safety, and learning. Yet because this issue is such a controversial policy issue, it is tempting for people to seize on, spin, or oversimplify studies in ways that muddy the waters and confuse the public. And the impact isn't just theoretical. It has serious implications for children's health and well-being.
A recent example that supplies nuance to the benefits of starting later, but has been, instead, spun as a way to question the benefits altogether, shows how easily research in this area can be misread and misused. Instead of clarifying what we know about teen sleep and school schedules, it provides ready fodder for a public conversation using claims the study didn’t actually support. That kind of distortion risks undermining years of progress toward healthier, more equitable school hours. Science should inform policy, of course, and new research should be considered even if it casts doubt on reigning beliefs. However, science-informed policy starts with a full and thorough understanding of what a given study does and does not say. It also includes avoiding the temptation to seize on a headline and applying it to some preconceived contrarian notion rather than understanding how a single study fits into a much larger body of literature. It also involves considering the impact of a self-serving article or quip on decisions being made to protect student well‑being. To see a deeper dive into how this happens—and why it matters—you can read my full Substack post here: https://terraziporyn.substack.com/p/when-science-meets-spin Terra Ziporyn is Start School Later's Executive Director and Co-Founder by Terra Ziporyn  Anyone who has spent years pushing for healthier school start times knows how immovable a district can seem—right up until the moment it isn’t. Clark County, Nevada, long one of the most resistant districts in the nation, is now offering a master class in how quickly the “impossible” can become inevitable.
Not long ago, Clark County was fighting tooth and nail against later high school start times. Leaders dismissed the science, warned of catastrophic costs, and framed any shift as a logistical nightmare. They even pushed back against a statewide proposal to require high schools to start no earlier than 8:00 a.m. Then, almost overnight, the tone changed. With new leadership and a community‑driven review process, the district began acknowledging the benefits of later start times and speaking publicly about student well‑being in ways that would have been unthinkable just a year earlier. This kind of reversal isn’t unique. I’ve seen it in Columbia, Missouri, where a misguided proposal to start high school earlier ended up catalyzing a move to 9:00 a.m.—thanks in part to a well‑informed 15‑year‑old who refused to accept “impossible” as an answer. And I’ve lived it in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, where decades of stalemate gave way to an 8:30 a.m. high school start time after years of insisting even a 13‑minute shift was unworkable. Clark County’s new plan isn’t perfect—middle schoolers are still being left behind—but the mindset shift is a big deal. In fact, it’s the foundation every long‑term change is built on. It's also real inspiration for anyone still out there in the trenches. I explore the full story, and what it means for advocates everywhere, in my latest Substack post. Terra Ziporyn is Start School Later's Executive Director and Co-Founder by Terra Ziporyn  For years, many of us assumed that if we simply presented the science on adolescent sleep, school leaders would naturally shift to healthier start times. After all, the evidence is overwhelming: later start times improve sleep health, mental health and emotional well-being, safety, and school performance. But evidence alone has never been enough—and that’s the part we too often missed. School schedules aren’t set by people who wake up thinking about circadian rhythms. They’re set by people juggling budgets, transportation contracts, staffing, sports, community politics, and the fear—often justified—of public backlash. Their resistance isn’t about not understanding the science. It’s about competing priorities, risk, and self‑interest. The turning point comes when we stop trying to change those interests and instead learn to align with them. When later start times become a solution to the problems decisionmakers already care about—attendance, graduation rates, equity, safety, even economic outcomes—doors open. And when communities understand what’s at stake for their own kids, political will follows. Healthy school hours aren’t just a sleep issue. They’re a systems issue involving a multitude of stakeholders with differing priorities. And when we frame them that way, without losing slight of the science, we create the conditions for real, lasting change. Read the full article here: 👉 A Matter of Interest https://terraziporyn.substack.com/p/a-matter-of-interest Terra Ziporyn is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of Start School Later.
by Terra Ziporyn, PhD  One of the first questions people ask about school start times is deceptively simple: How many districts have moved to healthier hours? It sounds like the kind of thing we should be able to answer with a clean number, a neat chart, or a tidy national map. But we can’t — and the reasons why say a lot about how education works in this country. There is no national database. No federal reporting requirement. No consistent state‑level tracking. Districts can change schedules quietly, sometimes partially, sometimes temporarily, and sometimes only for certain schools or grades. Some shift by ten minutes, others by an hour, and many don’t announce the change in any way that’s searchable. Even when we know a district has changed, it’s often unclear when, how, or for whom. And because the U.S. has nearly 14,000 school districts—each with its own calendar, politics, and communication habits—the picture is always incomplete. What we have instead is a patchwork: media reports, advocacy updates, scattered state data, and the stories families and educators share with us directly. Enough to see the momentum, but never enough to produce the simple number everyone wants. The absence of a clean tally doesn’t mean the movement is small or that there aren't other excellent ways to assess it. It means the system isn’t built to track change of this kind—even when that change is widespread, accelerating, and deeply consequential for kids’ health and safety. In the full piece, I explain why the question has no straightforward answer, what we can say with confidence, and what this lack of data reveals about the broader landscape: Read the Full Article at https://terraziporyn.substack.com/p/how-many-schools-have-moved-start Terra Ziporyn is Start School Later's Executive Director and Co-Founder
 by Lisa Lewis
The issue of school start times first hit my radar in the fall of 2015, when my son entered high school. In our community, high school started at 7:30 a.m. But why? Was this the norm elsewhere, too? As a parent and a journalist, I started gathering information and writing about the topic. I also reached out to our district superintendent but got zero response. In the fall of 2016, I wrote about it again, for the Los Angeles Times. While the op-ed gave me a boost of local visibility, there wasn’t any immediate change. Having recently started up a local chapter of Start School Later after connecting with the group during my research, I shifted my focus to seeing what I could accomplish locally. Then, in January 2017, I found out my op-ed had sparked something bigger. State Senator Anthony Portantino, whose district is in Los Angeles, had read it. As it so happened, his daughter’s high school was in the midst of discussing later start times, so it was a topic that resonated with him. He looked into the issue further and decided to introduce a state bill. His office reached out to Start School Later, which agreed to sponsor the bill and looped in the state’s chapter leaders. That bill, SB 328, which proposed 8:30 a.m. as the earliest allowed start time for the state’s middle and high schools, was introduced in February 2017. There had been similar proposed legislation in other states, but nothing of this scope had ever succeeded. Almost immediately, the immensely powerful California Teachers Association, along with the California School Boards Association, decried the bill as overreach that impinged on local control. Meanwhile, the California Parent Teachers Association, focused on the bill’s merits for kids’ well-being, announced its support. The PTA provided key input that helped shape the bill, including having a three-year window to allow enough preparation, as well as clarifying that “zero periods” (optional before-school classes) could still be offered. Drawing on the experience and guidance from Start School Later, several of us in California formed a virtual team: Mariah Baughn and Beth McNeill in San Diego, me in the Los Angeles area, Irena Keller (who’d founded the statewide Start School Later chapter) in the San Francisco Bay Area, and Joy Wake, Sue Gylling and Anne Del Core in Sacramento. Another key player: Stanford sleep specialist Rafael Pelayo, who serves on Start School Later’s Board of Directors. Among our strategies:
Over a two-year period, the bill made it through numerous committees as well as floor votes on both the senate and assembly sides, eventually reaching Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk. All that was needed was his signature. Instead, he vetoed the bill, stating that he believed the decision should be made locally. Luckily, 2019 brought a new governor and another chance. On Feb. 15, 2019. Sen. Portantino brought the bill forth again, with two key amendments: an exemption for the state’s rural districts, and a start-time change for middle schools to “8 a.m. or later” rather than the “8:30 a.m. or later” change for high schools, which provided additional flexibility. This time around, the California PTA signed on as a cosponsor of the bill, which brought additional visibility and resources. Again, the bill made it through all of the previous steps. Gov. Gavin Newsom had thirty days to sign it into law – or veto it, as his predecessor had. There was a final blitz of letters to Newsom’s office. There were final appeals from supporters. And, we knew, there were similar activities opposing the bill underway. Finally, at about 8:30 p.m. on the very last day, Newsom signed it into law. What it finally took: Persistence, allies, communication, timing, flexibility This included:
Ultimately, what we accomplished in California drew on the body of research and many advocacy efforts to date, as well as the active support of countless researchers and the critical connections forged by Start School Later. May it continue to bolster similar efforts elsewhere. Adapted excerpt from The Sleep-Deprived Teen: Why Our Teens Are So Tired, And How Parents And Schools Can Help them Thrive, published by Mango Publishing Group, June 2022. Lisa L. Lewis is the author of The Sleep-Deprived Teen: Why Our Teenagers Are So Tired, And How Parents And Schools Can Help Them Thrive, described as “a call to action” by Arianna Huffington and “an urgent and timely read” by Daniel H. Pink. The book is an outgrowth of her previous work on the topic, including her role helping get California’s landmark law on healthy school start times passed. Lewis has written for The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Atlantic, and others. She’s a parent to a teen and a recent teen and lives in California. More info: www.lisallewis.com. Many school districts may need statewide legislation to spur or support later start times. Here's what you can do to help that happen. by Terra Ziporyn Snider, PhD  Has your district still failed to ensure safe, healthy school hours? Join the club. Though any school district can establish sleep-friendly school hours on its own initiative--and many have--most still have not taken action. Despite clear calls for change since the 1990s, many school districts may need statewide legislation to spur or support later start times. Below are some advocacy tips that we've picked up over the years working for bills to study, incentivize, and even mandate sleep-friendly school start times. You can also find information on current legislative activity—as well as past success stories—on Start School Later's Legislation Page. Tip #1: Find an elected official to champion the cause To get your bill off the ground, you first want to find an elected official to introducing, or sponsoring, it. A bill can have numerous sponsors, often referred to as co-sponsors, but someone needs to get the ball rolling. Tip #2: Start with your own elected official(s) If that person or delegation won’t take the lead, it’s wise to pursue a legislator or several who serve on or lead committees that have the authority to work on health, educational or appropriations-related legislation Despite clear calls for change since the 1990s, many school districts may need statewide legislation to spur or support later start times. Tip #3: Determine if you or the legislator is taking the lead Some legislators will do the needed research and bill writing. Others will rely on you or other advocates to provide information, do research, and even draft bill language. Tip #4: Connect with Start School Later Ideally you should choose 1-2 representatives from your state or local Start School Later chapter who have the knowledge and time to be a resource and partner. The legislator can use Start School Later in getting support from both constituents and expert organizations likely to support the bill, Tip #5: Strive for bipartisan support Try to find legislative sponsors and subsequent "yes" votes in both legislative chambers (when there are two) and within both or all political parties, Emphasizing that it's much easier for local leaders to do the right thing (and deflecting community ire away from local school leaders) can be key. So can emphasizing that statewide parameters ensure that child's ability to go to school at sleep-friendly hours won't vary by zip code Tip #6: Neutralize the opposition
While advocates for healthy school hours see starting school later as a no-brainer, many people don’t. Any legislative effort for school hours change will attract the attention of individuals and organizations—including parents, teachers, school officials staff, and local businesses--that fear and thus oppose change. Some of these opponents have the type of financial resources and influence that community advocates just don't have, so it is important to find ways to neutralize their opposition. Try talking and compromising with them, using evidence to counter speculation and fear, or, if all else fails, minimizing publicity about the legislation until absolutely necessary, Tip #7: Build a base of supporters As an advocacy leader, you want to establishing an energized and committed base of supporters in place before introducing legislation. You need to be able to ask these supporters to supply written and oral testimony at legislative hearings and to contact legislators during key votes, sometimes with a very quick turnaround. An email list of people who support healthy teen sleep and sensible school start times can be invaluable here. Such supporters should be asked to take action by, for instance, signing an online petition; calling, writing to or visiting the offices of their legislators; writing letters to newspapers, posting on social media, and/or influencing others. Tip #8: Stress that local districts need help--and that they CAN make this work Stressing the need for help ensuring safe, healthy, equitable school hours—and the feasibility of doing so—is critical. Even if legislators agree that school should start at 8:30 or later, they will often reject legislation on the grounds that school hours should be decided locally ("local control") or that change isn't practical and/or affordable. That leads to a lot of agreeing that this "should be done" but also a lot of "kicking the can." Emphasizing that it's much easier for local leaders to do the right thing (and deflecting community ire away from local school leaders) can be key. So can emphasizing that statewide parameters ensure that child's ability to go to school at sleep-friendly hours won't vary by zip code Note: This blog was adapted from Start School Later materials originally put together by Debbie O. Moore Terra Ziporyn Snider, PhD, is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of Start School Later/Healthy Hours. |
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