Many middle and high schools start too early in the morning to allow teens to get enough sleep - and that's taking a huge toll on health, safety, and learning.Many middle and high schools start as early as 7 a.m. and dismiss students around 2 p.m., sometimes even earlier. Many districts adopted these very early hours in the latter part of the 20th century because they believed re-using the same buses by staggering start times of elementary, middle, and high schools would be cost-efficient.
After school sports, fast food, retail employers, and other extracurricular pursuits quickly adjusted to this earlier starting (and ending) school day. Before students of all ages, like most working adults, started school closer to 9 a.m. 
Compelling evidence now shows that starting middle and high school before the sun rises is out of sync with the biological clocks of young people (people ages 12-25, which includes young teachers). Even more disturbingly, starting school at these hours has now been linked not only to widespread sleep deprivation but also to a host of physical, psychological, and educational problems.
Meanwhile, no research has shown any benefit to requiring any child, of any age, to start instruction before 8 a.m. (teens would actually be better off after 8:30). Given what we now know, it is negligent not to work to return to a later school opening hours. Yes, changing school hours is challenging. Politics, money and misunderstanding often override the best interests of students, teachers and communities. Collective action on a national scale may turn out to be the only way to ensure that all public schools can set hours compatible with health, safety, equity, and learning. CLICK HERE for a quick synopsis of WHY WE MUST - AND CAN -RESTORE SAFE & HEALTHY SCHOOL HOURS |
Extremely early school bells make it nearly impossible for many teens to get healthy sleep - and not because they're lazy.
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Why Aren't More Schools Delaying Start Times?
One of the main reasons many local school systems don't change, even though the evidence is crystal clear that it's best for kids and communities, is that raising the issue stirs up a lot of kneejerk and misinformed opposition. As a result, a Superintendent who suggests the change can be "run out of town," and no one wants to take that on unnecessarily. That's one of the reasons we're also taking this issue to state and national levels. (See our national petition.) Social media is making it easier and faster to spread the word and educate people.
However, the Start School Later Movement is starting to catch on. We know of school districts in virtually all U.S. states that are getting it done. Join us to continue moving in the right direction.
However, the Start School Later Movement is starting to catch on. We know of school districts in virtually all U.S. states that are getting it done. Join us to continue moving in the right direction.
“We haven’t had all the groups we’ve wanted, we’ve simply had all the groups we could afford…. Our electronic networks are enabling novel forms of collective action, enabling the creation of collaborative groups that are larger and more distributed than at any other time in history.”
–Clay Shirky, Here Comes Everybody
A bus schedule for certain students from Anne Arundel County Public Schools in Maryland, 2014-15 school year. Students are expected to be at the bus stop at least 10 minutes before schedule pick-up time. (Source: http://www.aacps.org/buses/data/2363.asp, Accessed on 1/4/15)
Early school hours PREVENT many students and young teachers from getting the 8.5-9.25 hours per night that most teenagers and young adults need. (Elementary school-aged children may need 10-11 hours of sleep a night!)
The healthy, safety, and equity benefits to starting middle and high school at times more in sync with the sleep needs of students are irrefutable. Benefits include:
The healthy, safety, and equity benefits to starting middle and high school at times more in sync with the sleep needs of students are irrefutable. Benefits include:
- Improved alertness, memory, attention, and cognitive processing skills.
- Improved academic performance that may be twice as great in disadvantaged students
- Reduced tardiness, truancy, and drop-out rates
- More sleep per night and reduced fatigue
- Reduced depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors
- Improved athletic performance
- Reduced risk of obesity, eating disorders, and diabetes
- Improved mood and impulse control
- Reduced risk of stimulant and other substance abuse, and high-risk health behaviors especially during early unsupervised hours in the afternoon.
- Reduced delinquency
- Fewer car crashes and better psychomotor performance
- Increased visibility during commutes to school
- Long-term economic benefit. A report published by the Brookings Institution predicts that starting high schools one hour later would result in roughly $17,500 in increased future earnings per student in present value - a benefit:cost ratio of at least 9:1. Another report by the RAND Corporation predicts that delaying middle and high school start times to 8:30 a.m. would contribute $83 billion to the U.S. economy, with benefits outweighing any immediate costs of change within just two years.
The Bottom Line
Returning to later, healthier, safer, evidence-based school hours is a reform with the potential to improve the health, safety, and academic achievement of all students, immediately and often at low or even no cost.
The need to Start School Later is a national public health concern!
The need to Start School Later is a national public health concern!