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HUGE NEWS!
Governor Gavin Newsom Signs The Health School  Start Times Bill Into Law

SB 328 Update

In a show of support for science and child health, California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed Senate Bill 328 (SB 328) into law. The bill, introduced by Senator Anthony Portantino, was passed by the state legislature and sent to Governor Newsom for approval. Under this new law, California’s middle schools can start required classes no earlier than 8:00 a.m. and high schools no earlier than 8:30 a.m. Specific scheduling within those parameters is left to local school districts, with allowances made for some rural communities. The guidelines go into effect in the 2022 school year for most districts
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The historic Assembly Vote. 44-16! Passsed!
Start School Later California
Overwhelming Consensus from Research and Health Experts in Support of SB328

About Start School Later California

The California chapter of Start School Later is headed by Irena Keller, Ph.D.

The statewide chapter works on providing resources to local communities to help bring awareness of the importance of sleep and reasonable school start times in the state of California.

To contact us, please fill out the contact form on this page. You can also stay up to date on our activities by liking our page on Facebook.

Chapter background
Irena Keller founded the California chapter in 2016. Lisa Lewis joined in 2017 and served as a chapter Co-Chair up until 2019, when SB 328 authored by Senator Portantino was signed into law. Even though the California Chapter led the legislative efforts, the win would not be possible without the support of the national SSL team, as well as the local communities and sleep experts. Special acknowledgements go to Sacramento parents' group leader Joy Wake and Dr. Rafael Pelayo from Stanford. 

In 2021 California Chapter along with the national SSL leaders and a group of experts in adolescent sleep and school start times also held a summit to summarize the research, develop recommendations and offer a forum for networking and exchanging ideas. The summary of the presentations were published in a paper in the National Sleep Foundation's journal Sleep Health in 2022: 

Ziporyn, T. D., Owens, J. A., Wahlstrom, K. L., Wolfson, A. R., Troxel, W. M., Saletin, J. M., Rubens, S.L, Pelayo, R. Payne, P.A., Hale, L., Keller, I., & Carskadon, M. A. (2022). Adolescent sleep health and school start times: Setting the research agenda for California and beyond. A research summit summary. Sleep Health, 8(1), 11-22.
California now also has six local chapters:

    Contact SSL California

SB328: Hearing before the Senate Education Committee, April 19, 2017
" California schools should start their classes later. The health and learning benefits far outweigh the inconvenience of change."    - Mercury News Editorial dated August 8, 2017
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