<p>Our high schools start at 7:30 a.m. Where my older son attended high school, it is 8 a.m.</p>
<p>We always hear the arguments about teens and starting school later so that the kids can sleep. I wish that were the case, if they actually did sleep. My sons say that they knows plenty of kids who were online on Facebook or texting at all hours instead of sleeping. They got those texts/e-mails the next morning when they woke up.</p>
<p>7:30 starts, ends at 2:30 then practice till 5:30 then weight lifting till 6:30 three days a week. Two days when he doesn’t lift he mentors 14 freshman.</p>
<p>Son’s high school starts at 8 am. He takes the subway, needs to leave by 7:25. Ends at 3:35, unless a club or something is going on. He has lunch only on even days in the ten day cycle, due to three double classes that he didn’t know about when he registered for class last spring. On odd days he has gym instead of lunch, and eats an energy bar in his midday class, which is actually quite common in his school. </p>
<p>In our district, it varies from school to school, but for our kids - elementary school 8:15 - 3:00, middle school 8:45-3:45 with late start (10am) one day a week, high school 8:05 - 3:20. Despite the (relatively) late start, kids still manage to handle a full slate of sports and extracurriculars.</p>
<p>One could argue that if school is starting early in order to allow more time for after-school sports and ECs, it’s a sign of seriously misplaced priorities - the better solution would be to make practices shorter, not to start school earlier. I can understand students occasionally leaving school early for games/meets, but for the most part, this could be avoided if games and meets were scheduled appropriately (after dinner and/or weekends). Granted their will be some rural schools where this is not possible due to long travel times, but for most urban and suburban schools, there is rarely a good reason why kids should be missing class time for sporting events.</p>
<p>S1’s high school started at 7:45 and S2’s started at 7:15. S1 went out of district so no school bus - we had drive him until junior year, when he took over. S1 went in-district and caught the bus at 6:40 every day. One thing I will say for both of them, they got up on their own and usually left on time. In fact, for years S2 getting into the shower at ~6:45 every morning served as our alarm - we have to actually set one now that he is away at school.
All the schools in our county are on staggered start times due to the fact that they want to move 10,000 + students with about seven buses. The earliest start time is 7:15, which puts elementary students on the bus at 6 in some cases. A lot of parents who are able drive their kids in the morning because of this. The elementary and high schools start early, with the most of the middle schools starting around 8. S2 didn’t have to be at middle school until 8:20 and he could walk … some of the easist mornings ever. </p>
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The long travel times are a huge problem in our state, especially in rural counties with a single high school. Some families drive an hour each way daily during sports seasons to enable their children to participate. Some counties have an “activity bus” but they run the main drags and are still inconvenient for many people. </p>
<p>Public: starts 7:25, out at 2:10. Both of us should get to sleep later (if in separate states) next year! Do any college classes start before 8 a.m.?</p>