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Start School Later Baltimore County
Our Goal: Safe and healthy school start times for all Baltimore County Public Schools.
SSL Chapters in Anne Arundel and Howard County have some great graphics and resources to share.
Start Times in the NewsOn December 17, 2025, the Baltimore Sun published a letter to the editor in support of school start times.
On November 28, 2025, the Baltimore Sun published a letter to the editor in support of school start times. An article on November 25 in the Baltimore Sun describes the October 21, 2025 presentation to the Board of Education about transportation and school start times. In the 2022-2023 school year, BCPS will be piloting an "opt-in" bus seat reservation system for the Northeast cluster and a notification app for a select number of routes. On November 5, 2019, the Baltimore Sun publishes an Opinion piece by Dr. Amy Wolfson of Loyola University. On September 5, 2019, BBC's Cut Through The Noise, interviewed a Baltimore County family about early school start times. On January 31, 2019, the PTA Council of Baltimore County hosted health and safety presentations, including one by Dr. Amy Wolfson of Loyola University and SSL Board of Directors member, on teen sleep and school start times. On October 29, 2018, BCPS released the School Day Task Force's recommendations on the school day length and start times. The Task Force recommended adding additional instruction time by starting school earlier and declined to recommend a start time, finding "limited" academic benefit to a later start for middle and high school, while also declining to consider flipping elementary and high schools. On April 27, 2018, BCPS announced a Task Force to explore school day length, schedules, and start/end times. On June 8, 2017, Baltimore County proposed opening Towson High School 10 minutes early. The Towson Flyer interviewed SSL BaltCo. On April 27-28, 2017, SSL BaltCo attended the Adolescent Sleep, Health, and School Start Time Conference in Washington, D.C. Listen to SSL BaltCo on WBAL 1090's Taking Education to the Next Degree. September 14, 2016. Listen to SSL on WYPR "Should Schools Push the Snooze Button?" April 26, 2016 For Fall 2015, Baltimore County actually opened some high schools earlier, despite knowing the science and recommendations. The Baltimore Sun interviewed SSL BaltCo about this. A letter to the editor by SSL BaltCo was published by the Baltimore Sun on August 13, 2015 In 2015, the Baltimore County Parent Teacher Association Council approved this resolution, "The Baltimore County PTA Council requests that the Baltimore County School Board recognize the large and compelling body of research demonstrating how early school start times negatively impact children’s academic achievement and physical and mental health and thus shift and schedule transportation and start times so that all schools in Baltimore County, MD begin after 8:30 a.m., following the recommendations of parents, our county’s students, and our children's physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics." |
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