Later Start Times: Should Schools Make Their Hours Later?

The school day should start later in order improve students’ mental health. Survey results have consistently indicated that middle level and high school students who start school at 7:15 a.m. or earlier obtain less total sleep on school nights due to earlier rise times in comparison to students at later-starting schools. () This is just the beginning of the negative impacts that early start times have on students. By starting school at a later time, students’ brains will function better, their grades and learning increases, and will be more mentally stable.

The article “Later start time for teens improves grades, mood, and safety” addresses the topic for teens to have later start times. “The evidence shows that the later the start time, the greater the academic benefits” (Wahlstrom 2016, pg 2). The author has strong arguments concluding the medical research, schools actually participating in later start times, academic outcomes, and health/activity outcome. School starting times being later could be more effective for students in their health and scholastic purposes.

Changing the start time allows students to gain a longer attention span and to have a better morning. When High School students are more awake, attentive, and present, their academic performances obviously benefit. When school started at 9 a.m. or later 36% of schools said their ACT/ SAT scores were increased by at least 2 points on average per student (“High School Starting Later to Help Sleepy Teens”). High standardized test scores also gives the school districts more money to keep their extra-curricular programs, and when students are more attentive and awake during the day, the school can earn hundreds of thousands of dollars by being a school with above average test scores. As the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported in April, the University of Minnesota’s Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement “finally put a rest to the long-standing question of whether later start times correlate to increased academic performance for high-school students”: Researchers analyzed data from more than 9,000 students at eight high schools in Minnesota, Colorado, and Wyoming and found that shifting the school day later in the morning resulted in a boost in attendance, test scores, and grades in math, English, science, and social studies. Schools also saw a decrease in tardiness, substance abuse, and symptoms of depression. Some even had a dramatic drop in teen car crashes as well. At schools with early start times many students oversleep, causing them to be late for their early morning classes. Ultimately, this results to a higher rate of tardiness and could possibly lead to an increase in the dropout

National pediatricians say that making middle school and high school students start class before 8:30 a.m. threatens their health, safety, and academic performance. It is important because these teens are not getting the recommended amount of sleep each night. If school start times for teens were later, standardized test scores would be higher and more teens would graduate.

“When schools have delayed the start of the school day, communities have seen reduced tardiness, sleeping in class, and car crash rates, as well as improved attendance, graduation rates, and standardized test scores” (School Start Later). There has been much debate whether start times for school should be kept where they are at or if they should be pushed back later. Research says that the teenage brain does not fully wake up till eight a.m. or later. So why don’t school systems make the decision to push back school start times for high school students? Although there are a few benefits to school starting earlier such as family time or an after school job, but the benefits of starting school later are much greater. Public schools should initiate later start times to increase the level of academic achievement, create a more positive attitude toward learning, and reduce the amount of stress on students.

According to the Washington post " An estimated 40 percent of high schools in the U.S. currently have a start time before 8 a.m.; only 15 percent start at 8:30 a.m. or later. The median middle school start time is 8 a.m., and more than 20 percent of middle schools start at 7:45 a.m. or earlier. (thewashingtonpost.comPg1). This shows that not a lot of kids get enough sleep or Start early, " In more than 40 states, at least 75 percent of public schools start earlier than 8:30 a.m,"according to the CDC’s report.(pg.1). This shows that a lot of kids start at 8:30 or earlier. According to startschoollater“Hundreds of school communities across the USA - and beyond have found ways to make this happen by prioritizing health and learning,”(startschoollater.com pg.1). The research on starting later. Therefore let's go over

As the education of Americans continues to fail in comparison to other countries, it is imperative that we don’t further weaken our school day by making school start later. This is important to take into consideration when deciding school start times, as well as many other facts. District officials nationwide have been discussing or even implementing a later start time in their schools. However, this will just cause more problems and hurt the students and everybody else concerned more than help them. Children need to learn how to manage their time and get the amount of sleep they need. We cannot keep enabling by starting school later.

Studies prove that schools that have a early starting time have lower average GPA's than schools that have later starting times. Having school starting at a current time of 7:40, students have two classes before 10 am with their brain not fully awake. This causes students

So, the later the starting time of school, the better students will do. Students are more focused and alert when their body is fully awake at school, thus their willingness to learn is higher since they can operate. In “Sleepy Teens: High Schools Should Start Later in the Morning”, Mark Fischetti states, “Hundreds of school districts in the U.S. have experimented with later start times and the academic performance of students has improved across the board. A study released in February that tracked 9,000 high school students in three states showed that grades in science, math, English and social studies all rose when school began at 8:35 or later” (Blogs.ScientificAmerican.com). When school districts have done an experiment to test if there was a beneficial factor of starting schools later, it has been proven. Throughout the nation, these 9,000 high school students, in just three states, have managed to boost their grades when school has begun at 8:35 or later. These pupils have achieved a higher success in math, science, English, and social studies when the school day began at a later time. Thus, this concludes that changing the school time to a later time will be beneficial for the students

The first reason all schools should have a later start time is that there could be a reduced risk of teen crashes. If teens get more sleep, they are more alert, which would be easier to pay attention. But, if teens are tired, they have slower reaction times and have a harder time paying attention. Sleepiness is a major factor in teen crashes. AAA, the American Automobile Association, says that drowsiness contributes to more than 100,000 crashes per year. Adolescents are more at risk for driving drowsy because of early school start times. Improvement of academic performance is the second reason of why all schools should have a later start time. Lack of

First, high schools should start later because of health concerns. With students taking harder classes, the need to study and have sufficient time for homework is much greater than middle and elementary school. With early start times, students are forced to stay up late to finish homework because of how late they arrive at home after school ends. Teenagers should be getting between 8-10 hours of sleep, and due to these very early start times, that is something that cannot happen. Along with this amount of sleep comes another reason for later high school starting times, circadian rhythms. Circadian rhythms play a major role in the development of teenagers, as during this period of their life, their body becomes tired much later than it was when they were younger. Back when students were in elementary and middle school, they had not begun puberty, so these circadian rhythms were driving sleep to happen much earlier in the night. Now, the desire to sleep does not become its highest until around 11:00. Going off of this, it would be impossible for students to get the recommended amount of sleep with the current way school times are. So, change is needed to provide students with the sufficient amount of the sleep they need. Overall, lack of sleep and circadian rhythms are the main health concerns for high schoolers, which is why the high school starting time should be later.

(Hughes, 2016). School evidently plays an important role in students’ daily schedules. Yet, their ability to learn can definably be enhanced by the best option to start school later. This will take into consideration the essential need for 9.25 hours of sleep every night as well as how hungriness becomes a distraction to reduce their ability to attend, achieve and behave. I firmly believe high schools should start later during the day and implore you to consider the positive impact delaying school starting time will have on all students, allowing them the full potential to achieve. You can be rise for future students succeed!

Having later school start times can have both positive and negative impacts on students and parents, it could affect how schools run on a day to day basis and it would have an effect on after-school activities. Starting schools later would have certain effects on students performance in school. Since most schools begin so early it makes it difficult for students to get the necessary and beneficial eight hours of sleep, especially when they had after-school obligations. Sleep deprived students or young adults resort to drinking highly caffeinated beverages and using sleep medications as a way to control sleep (Stainburn, S. 2014). Beginning schools later would help the issue of students falling asleep during class. Starting schools just thirty minutes later would help students to be more alert in class (Park, A. 2010).

About 93% of high schools in the U.S. start before 8:30 A.M. Most middle and high schools start before 8:30 A.M, while only a few start after. A lot of students usually get less than 7 hours of sleep due to staying up all night, then having to get up and get ready for school at 5 or 6 am. Yet, teens need at least 9 hours to fully function at school. Even though many schools want to save money by having earlier start times, I think that a student’s school performance matters more than money. Therefore, school should start later.

For decades Students and even our own parents complain about how high school students have to wake up so early to go to school. According to Dr. Marcel Decary says that he sees a lot of teenargers who are tired and have problems in school from waking up early. High school student’s should start classes at 8:15 am. The American Academy of Pediatrics says, “the first bell should ring at 8:30 a.m or later, which is the case at only 15 percent of united states high schools right now’’. Students are sleeping thru out all their classes and missing out from some very important information. High schools students who start school at 8:15 pm most likely tend to get better grades. High school student’s should start classes at 8:15 am and, parents should know starting school early effects the academic ability, education, health, and safety of students.