Later start Times? Let's Go!
This article appeared in today's PI about later start times. It includes information from a study done in Lexington, Kentucky in 1998 that showed when the school district there pushed back middle/high school start times by an hour, two things happened; more sleep and fewer teen traffic accidents (this from the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine). It did not establish conclusively that the change in start times led to the improvement of accident rates but there was a significant drop in the accident rate in the county where Lexington is located. From the PI article:
"The National Sleep Foundation has conducted detailed studies into teen sleep. One statistic stands out: Three of every 10 students admit to falling fast asleep during class at least once per week."
"Another stat from the National Sleep Foundation: Fifteen percent of teen drivers surveyed admitted to driving drowsy at least once per week."
"In this study, when start times were delayed by one hour, the percentage of kids getting at least eight hours of sleep rose to 50 percent. Before altering start times, Danner and Phillips found just more than a third of middle and high school students in the district logged at least eight hours of sleep. The previous start times were 7:30 a.m. for the high school and 8 a.m. at the middle school.
The district is actively discussing start time changes for middle/high school (but more like a half hour than an hour) to save money on transportation costs. I've heard many people here bemoan how hard it is to transition their child from elementary to middle school because of the start times.
Let the Board know you want this to happen if that is your desire for your child. We have at least 2 high schools that start at 8:15-8:30 (Ballard and Hale) and they still have sports and after-school activities (the main complaints against changing start times).
"The National Sleep Foundation has conducted detailed studies into teen sleep. One statistic stands out: Three of every 10 students admit to falling fast asleep during class at least once per week."
"Another stat from the National Sleep Foundation: Fifteen percent of teen drivers surveyed admitted to driving drowsy at least once per week."
"In this study, when start times were delayed by one hour, the percentage of kids getting at least eight hours of sleep rose to 50 percent. Before altering start times, Danner and Phillips found just more than a third of middle and high school students in the district logged at least eight hours of sleep. The previous start times were 7:30 a.m. for the high school and 8 a.m. at the middle school.
While some might challenge that kids simply need to retire earlier at night, the hormonal research points to a certain biological futility to that effort. Laying in bed awake doesn't count as sleep. Another important finding is the students in the study needed less catch-up sleep on weekends, indicating that you can better regulate a child's sleep habits with a bit later start in the morning."
And from the study it was found that in the two years after the school start time change, the average crash rates for 17-19 year old drivers in the county went down 16 percent while in the rest of the state they increased almost 8 percent.The district is actively discussing start time changes for middle/high school (but more like a half hour than an hour) to save money on transportation costs. I've heard many people here bemoan how hard it is to transition their child from elementary to middle school because of the start times.
Let the Board know you want this to happen if that is your desire for your child. We have at least 2 high schools that start at 8:15-8:30 (Ballard and Hale) and they still have sports and after-school activities (the main complaints against changing start times).
Comments
salmon bay's 9ish start time was a significant factor in our putting the school first on our list of choices.
our 11 yo son is not even awake at the time most comprehensive middle-schoolers are starting their first class (much less getting on the bus).
with sports, is it that if you have later start but are in a conference with high schools who don't, you'll have to leave your classes even earlier to get to the games? or that it would be harder to get home by metro after practice if it's later (3-5 vs 2:30-4:30?) or do they practice so long that it runs into dinner time?
my salmon bay 6th grader plays on the basketball team and practices from 3-5 - which seems reasonable - but he gets a yellow bus home I think courtesy of the families and education levy.
I'm not sure Metro is the issue although I think others could chime in and let us know.
And when I say afterschool activities, I should have said jobs. You get some issues raised over students having less time to work.
The later start does mean she comes home later than she did from middle school -- 3:20-3:30 instead of 2:40. (She also has to walk instead of taking the bus, so that's part of it).
Funny but the district is finally considering this but it's about money and not academic achievement or safety.
Helen Schinske
Ballard, Hale, Cleveland, RB, WSHS
Apparently Sealth also wanted a later start, but they are still using the yellow busses because of their temporary location, so they are locked into the 7:45 range.
All of the high schools have a full 6-1/2 hours except for WSHS, which has cut 10 minutes from the standard schedule this year, which adds up to 30 hours less time at school for those students this year!
The rationale was to keep the ending time shorter for sports, but half of the schools this year finish later anyway, in the 2:30 to 3:00 range. I would think that all the Seattle high schools would at least be required to have the full 6-1/2 hours overall in their schedule.
Also nice to imagine being outside the system during the current round of school district upheaval...