Start School Later movement

The Start School Later movement refers to a series of efforts in the U.S.A. by health care professionals, sleep scientists, educators, economists, legislators, parents, students, and other concerned citizens to restore a later start to the school day, based on a growing body of evidence that starting middle and high schools too early in the morning is unhealthy, counterproductive, and incompatible with adolescent sleep needs and patterns. During the second half of the 20th century, many public schools in the United States began shifting instructional time earlier than the more conventional bell time, thought to be about 9 a.m. (although there is a lack of comprehensive data confirming school hours in the nearly 14,000^[1] U.S. school systems). Today it is common for American schools to begin the instructional day in the 7 a.m. hour and end about seven hours later, about or around 2 p.m.^[2][3] Nonetheless, most sleep research suggests that morning classes should begin no earlier than 8:30 a.m. or later for middle and high school students.^{[4][5][6][7][8][9][10]}

Advocates of a return to later school start times argue that sleep and school hours should be viewed as a public health issue, citing evidence linking early school start times to widespread sleep deprivation among teenagers as well as a wide array of acute and chronic physical, psychological, and educational problems. Not only do students consistently get significantly more sleep on school nights when their schools move to later start times,^{[11][12][13][14]} but later school hours have been consistently linked with improved school performance,^{[15][16][17][18][19]} reduced impulsiveness, and greater motivation, as well as with lower rates of depression,^{[20][21][22][23]} tardiness and truancy,^{[24][25][26][27][28]} and morning automobile accidents.^[29][30][31] More recent studies suggest that early school start times disproportionately hurt economically disadvantaged students and may even negatively impact future earning potential of students, offsetting any financial savings to the school system attributed to earlier hours.^[32]

History

In the early 1990s, the University of Minnesota's landmark School Start Time Study tracked high school students from two Minneapolis-area districts – Edina, a suburban district that changed its opening hour from 7:20 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. and the Minneapolis Public Schools, which changed their opening from 7:20 a.m. to 8:40 a.m. The many positive benefits to students found included:

• Improved attendance and enrollment rates
• Less sleeping in class
• Less student-reported depression
• Fewer student visits to school counselors for behavioral and peer issues
• More even temperament at home

Five years later, a longitudinal follow-up study of the Minneapolis Public Schools revealed that these and other positive benefits had persisted. In 2014, another three-year project, using data from more than 9,000 students attending eight high schools in three states, found that when school switched to a start time of 8:30 a.m. or later attendance, standardized test scores and academic performance improved, and tardiness, substance abuse, symptoms of depression, consumption of caffeinated drinks, and teen car crash rates decreased.^[33]

Since the 1990s over 250 individual schools or districts in 42 states have pushed back their start times,^[34][35][36] and scores of others are considering a change at any given time.^[37][38] Despite sporadic reform efforts on the part of educators, public health officials, legislators, and grassroots groups, however, many American middle and high schools still require students to begin instruction prior to 8:30 a.m. Most efforts to delay start times have failed over the years, primarily due to pushback from community members who fear that a shift to later school hours will be prohibitively expensive and/or disrupt afterschool sports and other extracurricular schedules, student jobs, daycare arrangement, teacher training, or time for homework.^[39][40][41]

Shifted circadian rhythms and sleep deprivation in adolescence

Proponents of a return to later school hours cite abundant evidence that starting middle and high school before about 8:30 or 9 a.m. is incompatible with the biological clocks of teenagers and young adults.^[42] In 1993, a team led by Mary Carskadon, PhD, of Brown University showed that changes in circadian biology during puberty drive a "sleep-phase delay," a shift in the sleep-wake patterns of adolescents that leads them to fall asleep and wake up later than younger and older people. Subsequent studies have confirmed these findings, explored the impact of school start times on the sleep needs and patterns of adolescents.,^[2] and demonstrated a "phase shift" in the release of melatonin at puberty, which appears to be involved in shifting the sleep-wake cycle several hours later during the adolescent years.^[43][44][45] This same delayed phase shift in the release of melatonin has been seen in other mammals.^[46]

The shifted circadian rhythms associated with puberty make it difficult, if not impossible, for many teenagers—who may have to rise at 5 or 6 a.m. to get ready and commute to school in time for 7 a.m. school bells—to get sufficient sleep on school nights.^[47] Even discounting for the distractions of homework and extracurricular demands and electronics, most adolescents find it difficult to fall asleep before about 11 p.m. or rise before about 8 a.m. In addition, they need to sleep in until 8 a.m. or so to get the 9 or more hours of sleep that most sleep research suggests they need.^[44] As a result, many teenagers arrive at school sleep-deprived.^{[48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55]} The most recent data from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey show that 70% of American high school students are sleep-deprived and about 40% get six or fewer hours of sleep per night.^[56]

Health and safety impact of early school hours

Very early middle and high school hours have been associated with increased stimulant abuse, weight gain and diabetes risk,^[57] immune disorders, mood swings, depression, and suicidal ideation, as well as reduced impulse control.^[58][59] In addition, early school start times have been associated with drowsy driving in new teen drivers and higher car crash rates. Ending school early in the afternoon may also increase the risk of engaging in high-risk health behaviors among sleep-deprived adolescents.^[60] Sending children to school before sunrise also means they must wait or walk in dark, low visibility settings.^[61]

Impact on school performance

Sleep deprivation can result in less motivation, difficulty concentrating, restlessness, slowed reaction times, lack of energy, frequent errors, forgetfulness, and impaired decision-making skills. Studies, many spearheaded by Kyla Wahlstrom and her research team at University of Minnesota's Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement (CAREI), have tied these effects to early school start times, which, in turn, have been repeatedly linked to increased rates of tardiness, truancy, absenteeism, and dropping out.^[62][63] In 2012 a study using data from Wake County, North Carolina, showed that delaying middle school start times by one hour, from roughly 7:30 to 8:30, increases standardized test scores by at least two percentile points in math and one percentile point in reading. The effect was largest for students with below-average test scores, suggesting that later start times would narrow gaps in student achievement.^[64]

Equity impact of early school hours

The impact of later start times on school performance—including reduced truancy, absenteeism, and increased overall academic achievement—is approximately double in economically disadvantaged students.^[65] This discrepancy may be explained, at least in part, by the fact that privileged students have opportunities to attend private schools (most of which start instruction after 8 a.m.) and/or save time by driving or being driven to school.

Economic impact of early school hours

A recent Hamilton Project Report published by the Brookings Institution concluded that, for schools with scheduling flexibility, starting class later can be an immediate and inexpensive way to boost health, safety, and achievement for all students. The authors, economists Brian A. Jacob and Jonah E. Rockoff, predicted that starting high schools one hour later, at roughly 9 a.m., would result in roughly $17,500 in increased future earnings per student in present value—a benefit:cost ratio of at least 9:1 even when changing schedules requires upfront investment to alter bus schedules and/or accommodate later after-school activities.^[66]

Calls for Reform by Educators, Public Health Leaders, and Legislators

As early as 1993, sleep researchers and healthcare leaders began encouraging school administrators to move middle and high school hours back to 8:30 a.m. or later”^[67][68] Today numerous health, educational, and civic leaders are calling for a return to later, healthier school start times,^[69] including U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan,^[70] the Centers for Disease Control,^[71][72] the National Sleep Foundation,^[73] and the National Institutes of Health,^[74][75][76] In 2014 the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a new policy statement recommending that middle and high schools start no earlier than 8:30 a.m. as an effective means of addressing the serious public health issue of insufficient sleep in adolescents,^[77] and several state medical societies have issued position statements or resolutions supporting later school start times,^[78] as have both the Washington and Virginia state Parent Teachers Associations (PTAs).^[79][80] A move to a later school start time is also consistent with the Healthy People 2020 Objective to increase the proportion of students in grades 9 to 12 who get sufficient sleep.^[81]

California Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren has repeatedly introduced versions of a "ZZZ's to A's" Bill and Resolution to the U.S. Congress since 1998, all proposing limits on the hours at which American high schools can begin required instruction. All thus far have failed.

Numerous bills related to sleep and school start times have been introduced to state legislatures since the 1990s,^[82] recently including the Florida, Maryland, Virginia, Tennessee, and Massachusetts state legislatures. In 2013 and 2014 bills introduced by Virginia Delegate Kaye Kory requiring all Virginia public schools to start classes at 8 a.m. or later were tabled in committee.^[83][84] A resolution in the Tennessee legislature resulted in Tennessee's Offices of Research and Education Accountability (OREA) issuing a legislative brief on School Day Start Times, and in 2014 the Florida Legislature instructed its Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability to research high school start times as well.^[85][86] In 2013, Senator Cynthia Stone Creem introduced Bill S.192, an Act authorizing a study of school start times, into the 188th General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.^[87] A 2013 task force bill in the Maryland Legislature (HB 1462) sponsored by Delegate Aruna Miller (D, Montgomery County) had bipartisan, multi-county sponsorship and unanimous support from the Maryland House of Delegates before it was defeated in committee by the Maryland Senate. An updated version of this bill (HB 883) was passed unanimously by the Maryland General Assembly in April 2014, requiring the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to lead a study of student sleep needs, explore ways school systems can shift hours to accommodate them, and develop recommendations about whether public schools in the state should adopt a policy of start times at 8 a.m. or later.^[88]

The Fairfax County (Virginia) Public Schools (FCPS) Board of Education passed a resolution in April 2012 affirming their goal to find ways to start county high schools after 8 a.m. to allow students to get sufficient sleep, a resolution supported by the Washington Post's Editorial Board.^[89] In June 2013 FCPS contracted a team from the Children’s National Medical Center's Division of Sleep Medicine to partner with Fairfax County students, parents, educators, administrators, and other community stakeholders to develop a plan to accomplish this task.^[90] This effort led the Washington Post's Editorial Board to endorse later school start times as a "smarter way to start high schoolers' days" in August 2013.^[91] This editorial was tweeted by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan along with the comment that starting high school later and letting teens sleep more was a "common sense" way "to improve student achievement that too few have implemented."^[92] As new school superintendent Karen Garza laid out her vision for the district in September 2013, she vowed to push for later school start times.^[93] On October 1, 2013, Montgomery County, MD School Superintendent Joshua Starr recommended that high school start times be moved 50 minutes to 8:15 a.m., with a proposed start in the 2015-16 school year.^[94]

Grassroots advocacy

Individual and community groups have sporadically arisen in different school communities since the 1990s, sometimes prompting studies and reform proposals but often dying out as concerned families grow out of the system.^[2][95] Probably the most visible and longest lasting of the grassroots advocacy groups is SLEEP in Fairfax County, VA, which was formed in 2004 to increase awareness of teen sleep needs and to change middle and high school start times in the Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) to later in the morning. More recently, social media tools have allowed once isolated advocates to unite efforts and share resources. In the fall of 2011, an online petition effort galvanized a national organization, Start School Later, a coalition of health professionals, sleep scientists, educators, parents, students, and other concerned citizens dedicated to increasing public awareness about the relationship between sleep and school hours and to ensuring school start times compatible with health, safety, education, and equity. Active petition drives in 2012 and 2013 among the coalition's Washington DC Metro area chapters have spurred several counties to re-open discussions on starting high schools later^{[96][97][98][99]} and helped spearhead a study group to reconsider the issue in the Montgomery County Public Schools^[100] Start School Later also maintains a website with links to references and other educational materials on sleep and school start times,^[101] and in 2013 partnered with The Lloyd Society to co-sponsor an educational symposium featuring keynote speaker Judith Owens, MD, MPH, Director of Sleep Medicine at the Children's National Medical Center whose research interests include the neurobehavioral and health consequences of sleep problems in children, pharmacologic treatment of pediatric sleep disorders, and cultural and psychosocial issues that impact sleep.^[102][103] Many advocates also support campaigns using materials from California attorney Dennis Nolan's website, an exhaustive and frequently updated compilation of research about adolescent sleep deprivation and its relationship to early school start times.^[2] In the spring of 2013 the Mayo Clinic updated its online information about teen sleep to recognize grassroots efforts to start school at later times in sync with the internal clocks of adolescents.^[104]

References