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PA School Districts and Beyond
Investigating Changing School Hours
Many school districts in Pennsylvania have officially initiated school start time studies and have posted information on their websites. We will continue to add to this list as other district webpages are created and/or information is given.
Allegheny County
School District of Philadelphia - plans to move their high school start time from 7:30 to 9:00 AM beginning the 2022-2023 school year. The District, the 8th largest in the nation with over 200,000 students, is making the change to help high school students be rested and ready to learn. It will also help students who have to make their own way to school, and it will make travel safer in the morning and afternoon, the district said in a letter to school staff. The change affects all schools except for four of them that are attached to partner institutions and follow that institution's schedule. High schools with middle grades in them will also change schedules, the letter read. Pre-K programs in the affected schools will keep their current schedule, as will all other elementary schools.
State of Delaware
- Fox Chapel SD - Sleep Committee Page
- Allegheny SD - Tackling Student Stress
- Bensalem Township SD - Resources and Articles
- Bristol Township SD - Beginning investigation of later school start times (News Article)
- Centennial SD - Secondary School Start Time Committee
- Central Bucks SD - Rethinking School Start Times & Infographic
- Council Rock SD - School Start Times
- New Hope Solebury SD - Administration having initial conversations on investigation of later school start times
- Pennridge SD - Sleep and School Start Time
- Pennsbury SD - Beginning investigation of later school start times (News Article)
- Quakertown Community SD - School Start Times Committee and Superintendent Goals 2019-2020 (Listed under Domain 4, 2a: Culture of Safety, Security and Wellness)
- Owen J Roberts SD - Sleep Health (Chester County)
- West Chester Area SD - School Start Times Task Force (May 2019) Letter from the Superintendent (April 2019) Article - West Chester Considering Delayed Start Times for Middle, High Schools (April 10, 2019) (Chester County)
- Derry Township SD - District To Revamp School Start Times in 2021-2022
- Garnet Valley SD - Delayed Start Times for Secondary School Students
- Reimagined Start Times for Schools (Changing School Start Times 2021-2022 School Year)
- High School - 60 minute difference (7:35 AM to 8:35 AM), Middle School - 30 minute difference (7:30 AM to 8:00 AM), Elementary School - 15 minute difference (8:35 AM to 9:10 AM)
- Haverford Township SD - Sleep and Secondary School Start Times
- Upper Darby SD - Article & Video - Upper Darby HS to Adopting New Start in the Fall 2021 In-person teaching will begin at 9:45 a.m. for students. Prior to that, the school will utilize asynchronous learning-a series of short offline 20-minute companion courses the students will take that coincide with each one-hour in-person class later in the day-starting at 7:30 a.m. at home. The school day will still end at 2:41 PM.
- Wallingford Swarthmore SD - Sleep and School Start Times (Delaware County)
- Ephrata Area SD - School Start Time Study (Lancaster County) (Voted to Change February 2020)
- Hempfield SD - Hempfield, Solano among districts studying later school start times (article)
- Solanco SD - Hempfield, Solano among districts studying later school start times (article)
- East Penn SD - Article - East Penn Agrees to Study Later Start Times
- Hatboro-Horsham SD - Beginning investigation of later school start times (News Article)
- Lower Merion SD - Sleep and School Start Times & News Clip - Channel 10
- Perkiomen Valley SD - School Start Times Committee
- Springfield Township SD - Superintendent's Message letter about later school start times and "Snooze or Lose - the Public Health Epidemic of Teen Sleep Loss" by Dr. Wendy Troxel, at Springfield Township HS 12-5-19
- Upper Dublin SD - Multimedia - Adolescent Sleepiness Discussion & Adolescent Sleepiness Data Review
- Upper Merion Area SD - Adolescent Sleep and Secondary Start Times
School District of Philadelphia - plans to move their high school start time from 7:30 to 9:00 AM beginning the 2022-2023 school year. The District, the 8th largest in the nation with over 200,000 students, is making the change to help high school students be rested and ready to learn. It will also help students who have to make their own way to school, and it will make travel safer in the morning and afternoon, the district said in a letter to school staff. The change affects all schools except for four of them that are attached to partner institutions and follow that institution's schedule. High schools with middle grades in them will also change schedules, the letter read. Pre-K programs in the affected schools will keep their current schedule, as will all other elementary schools.
State of Delaware
- Appoquinimink School District - Sleep & School Start Times At the Appoquinimink School Board meeting held May 11, 2021 and after much feedback and discussion, the Board reached a compromise that will change Secondary start times to 8:00 am-2:40 pm, and Elementary start times to 9:00 am-3:40 pm beginning in August 2021. This decision will be revisited by the Board during the first quarter of 2022. School Board Meeting Video - Sleep/School Times Update & Vote / Tom Poehlmann, Director of Safety, Security & Operations / Time stamp 3:10:55/3:58 - School Meeting May 11, 2021 on District YouTube Channel