School Start Times Advantages

Introduction School start times are a widespread problem in the United States. It affects more than just students and teachers, but entire communities. There is countless evidence that proves that starting school as early as or earlier than 8:30 am can have harmful side effects on high school students. “Currently, about 40% of American high schools start before 8:00 am. Many start at 7:30 am or even earlier” (Boergers, 2015). This means that students have to wake up at at least 6:30 am or earlier to get to school on time. Many people, including Don Schlomann, the superintendent for St. Charles District 303, believe that while delaying school start times has benefits, there are too many obstacles to change. Although the benefits seem to outweigh

Only 14% actually sleep that much throughout weekdays. This is also been proven by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) who have done studies that indicate that “children are less likely to meet this recommendation as they age” (Paksarian, 2015). The National Sleep Foundation issued a poll which found that found that only 9% of teenagers got the recommended amount of sleep (Portantino, 2017). “The National Institutes of Health (NIH) declares that adolescents and young adults are a population at high risk for problem sleepiness based on evidence that the prevalence of the problem sleepiness is high and increasing with particularly serious consequences” (Portantino, 2017). It has also been proven by sleep studies at the AAP that “later start times are thought to improve adolescent sleep by reducing the mismatch between the developmental biological drive toward later bedtimes and wake times” (Paksarian, 2015). In other words adolescents feel more awake and alert at night which causes them to stay up later. Just telling them to go to bed earlier would not be

This is a quote taken from and article by Marwa Eltagouri, a general assignment reporter for the Washington Post. Later school start times might interfere with after-school activities. Although, the students might perform better or be more involved in activities like sports if they had the recommended time of sleep which would boost their health, and not to mention their grades. “While administrators, teachers, and parents opposed to later school day start times acknowledge the importance of sleep for adolescent students, they argue that the obstacles involved in implementing such a change overshadow the potential benefits” (Eltagouri & Pannoni, 2015). Also later school day start times lead to later end times, which they believe could have an affect on after school activities. They also believe that a later start time could affect younger students because the same buses transport the elementary, middle, and high school, and changing one school’s time would lead to reworking the entire schedule. While changing the school’s start time may be a difficult task there are no studies showing that it isn’t possible or that it doesn’t have good end results. (A quote from a school with a later start