<p>My youngest was able to attend through middle school, a school that didn’t start till 9am.
But for high school she transferred to a comprehensive school that began at 7:30.
Her schedule included 1st period physics, while students who were on the advanced track, had heavy academic courses later in the morning. Not a surprise that she struggled with her schedule.
When I was in high school, I had PE first period. ( my suburban high school also did not start till 8am, it tool me about 15 minutes to walk)
PE was great for first period, but youngest didn’t take PE in school, because she needed all the class time to take college prep courses, she participated in after school sport teams enabling her to have the PE requirement waived.</p>
<p>Nope, I do not talk against science, I talk against those who provided funding for this “science”. </p>
<p>You should consider yourself lucky to still have school bus. In my area, many school district has cut their school bus services or eliminated it altogether. I have been driving my D to HS for the last 2 years or she will need to walk 1 mile to the closest school bus stop. It is not very feasible in winter time when there are snow and ice on the road. It is the school district budget that force the schools to run 3 rounds for different grade levels. Also, HS has longer day than elementary or middle schools. So it cannot start later than the lower grades.</p>
<p>As has been noted, this information has been available for many years, so it does seem like I waste of money to prove it all over again, especially since school schedules will stay as they are for all the reasons cited by posters.</p>
<p>
Well, that’s just marvelous, but doesn’t work at all if your kid has an extracurricular activity that begins right after classes end. My D was a theater kid and had rehearsals almost daily until 5 or 6. Then there was my S, who edited the school paper and spent crazy hours at school during the week before the new edition came out, sometimes as late as midnight.
The vast majority of students at our high school don’t have cars and are stuck with the bus schedule or their parents work schedule in order to get to school. Even students with access to cars can’t necessarily use them, because parking space is very limited and awarded by seniority first and then by lottery. And of course your statement is completely meaningless in the context of urban schools.</p>
<p>@MiamiDAP, you have one child who is intellectually and athletically gifted and grew up in an environment of privilege. Your daughter didn’t have to work an after school job, look after siblings and start dinner while parents were at work, etc., and she selected, or was forced to select, EC’s with schedules that fit perfectly into your narrow rules. To pontifcate about what all other children should do based on that very limited experience is absurd. When you said in another thread that all kids could excel in school if they just spent a lot of time studying, you showed how oblivious you are to the world outside your own home. At least realize that you don’t have the experience to provide definitive advice on a broad range of subjects.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yes, by all means, dear friends, ignore these long-established scientific findings and take the word of one woman whose scientific credentials have yet to be disclosed!</p>
<p><a href=“Google Scholar”>Google Scholar;
<p>Look, I don’t think anyone would argue that we shouldn’t encourage our children to get to bed as early as possible and to get a good night’s sleep every night. But that doesn’t change the reality that the schedules of most American public schools are not ideally suited for the optimal performance of our children. It’s about priorities and legitimate constraints. Right now, given traffic patterns and busing limitations, not to mention the huge time dedicated to afterschool activities (all those ECs the best colleges want your kid to excel in!), the majority of children will start their school day earlier than most folks would like. And we haven’t even touched on when, and how much time, most kids are given to eat a decent meal!</p>
<p>It’s the economics of coordinated bus schedules, the timing of after school extracurriculars, and the winter sunrise (and safety of kids walking to bus stops in the dark) that trump the well known sleep study results.</p>
<p>In theory, our county wide public school district could swap the early high school and later elementary school schedules, without the bus costs increasing, but the impact on winter safety (6:30 AM pick-ups are in pitch dark) and school related extracurricular activities that are difficult to adjust are the sticky point. If the high schoolers get out later, practices start and end later. In the early spring and late fall, sunset times are an issue for outdoor sports. Other activities also operate under time crunches. The issue of kindergarteners at bus stops at 6:30 in the winter is one of safety. </p>
<p>My school starts at 7:30 but I have to wake up at 5:30 everyday to get on the bus. I live in California, though, and we have to pay to use the school bus so there are only two buses and they are only half full. So I don’t know why my school starts early. It ends at 2:30.</p>
<p>I’ve heard some of my teachers talk about this. We’d supposedly get more sleep because we teenagers tend to sleep around 12:00 no matter what time school starts. I call bull… Honestly, if you’re “that type” of student, if schools start later, you’d start to sleep later to make up for the time wasted not doing homework (or finding the cure to cancer). I think the times are fine. If anything, a slow bus means more nap time.</p>
<p>There’s an issue with busses. The little ones do pop out of bed like jack in the boxes, but nobody wants the wee ones out in the dark and the freezing cold waiting for the bus. Far better/safer for them to be waiting when it’s a little lighter.</p>
<p>There’s an issue with ECs. We have them both before and after school. Still, when school runs 9-4, practice is now later, event start times are later, when travel is involved, nights get very late, which becomes an issue for the families with younger sibs…</p>
<p>There’s an issue with work & child care. If you live in a less affluent district (mine is 60% free and reduced lunch), kids need to work or care for younger siblings. </p>
<p>Bottom line, you can’t adjust the schedule without consequences for someone. Maybe the benefits for hs students do outweigh the negative consequences for others, but the decision is hardly a no- brainer.</p>
<p>My personal opinion is some of this is based on sport schedules. The schools need time to shuttle sport teams to opposing schools and back, and for students to do homework.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>The key factor is the cost of making these changes, especially if these buses are needed to move high school, middle school, and elementary school students, not only during the academic day, but also after extracurricular activities that occur at the end of the school day. </p>
<p>@ordinarylives When some counties considered making the school day start earlier for elementary students, my concern was also for their safety. Even though theses studies cite the benefits for high school students, how does one justify the benefits for one set of students against the safety concerns for another set of students?</p>
<p>There is no way of satisfying everyone involved with this issue but my vote, strictly for selfish reasons, is to leave the starting and ending times exactly the way they are currently. My property taxes are already way too high.</p>
<p>There is a safety concern with little kids out early, but OTOH, relatively few parents have to be at work so early that they couldn’t wait with little kids. When my kids were in elementary (and started at 8:30) it was actually somewhat inconvenient for us to hang around and wait for the bus (or drop the kids off) before going in to work.</p>
<p>As I said earlier, in my district, the buses are already shared, with HS/MS having the early shift so the cost to the district would not increase if they swapped the schedules and had HS/MS start at 8:30 and elementary at 7-ish.</p>
<p>I agree that sports is likely a factor in many cases. I live in the south and it’s certainly a factor here.</p>
<p>I don’t know how people manage in districts where high school starts first. As 1or2musicians stated, how do you ensure your small child gets ready for school and off safely when you have to leave for work before they go? The middle and high school kids can get themselves out the door without parental supervision.</p>
<p>“she will need to walk 1 mile to the closest school bus stop. It is not very feasible in winter time when there are snow and ice on the road.” She’s lucky. Our school didn’t think walking a mile in winter time was too much for students either. My parents had no problem with me walking a mile to school in the snow and ice. </p>
<p>Right–for older kids, once I am sure they are fully awake, I can leave them at home. And frankly, at those borderline ages, I’d rather they have more unsupervised time before school and less after. </p>
<p>When my kids were in elementary, we had to use before-care for a couple of years just because we had to be at work before we could drop them off otherwise. If they had started before 8 like HS kids do, that would have been so much easier. And then in late elementary, my husband shifted his work schedule to go in at 8:30 (previously he went in at 8) so he could wait for D’s bus–and if it ran late he just dropped her off. </p>
<p>My school district shares the buses too. The MS one comes at 7:00 while the HS one comes at 8:30 (which is making the transition for my now-freshman brother even harder). The elementary one comes at 8:00.</p>
<p>There have been times when I’ve had to leave early to get to school by 8:30 for make-up tests and clubs, and I’ve had to leave at 7:30 even though I only live 30 mins from my school because OH MY GOD ELEMENTARY PARENTS TRAFFIC. There is an elementary school on the only road to my school about 3 miles from my house…If I leave at 7:35, even, I won’t make it on time.</p>
<p>High schools in my district start at 9:00 and end at 4:15, which is amazing for those of us who want to sleep in. To appease those who like to wake up earlier, a “zero hour” option is offered, in which students start school at 8:00 and end at 3:20 instead. Around half the school takes this option, which eliminates traffic problems and also lets everyone have their own choice of school start time.</p>
<p>I like the zero hour option, haven’t heard of such a thing before. I think it’s a great idea in a community where enough students can find transportation to school early.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>You don’t. You use the morning before-care option at the school. </p>
<p>
It’s certainly cited as an important factor where I live. But here’s the thing, as one article somewhere mentioned – why is the majority’s needs (the students who don’t participate in sports) more important than the minority’s needs (the students who play sports)? Is school about academics or sports? Guess that question has its answer!</p>
<p>When my kid was little at least once I took him to my babysitter’s busstop across town so that he could spend an hour on the bus while I got to an early meeting! Our high school starts at 8:15. There’s a 7:15 zero hour which my youngest had to use as the special arts program was scheduled then. (They also offered gym and health and perhaps a few other things.)</p>