It's time to change our district's early start times. By signing this petition you are advocating for the district to modify high school start times to make them start later, and therefore advocating for our students health.

    We have researched psychological and physiological studies concerning our students health and the correlation between them and school start times. Rising early for high school is a daily struggle for students in our district. Later start times are research proven to lead to an increase of focus among students and an overall readiness to learn. In order for our district to achieve higher grades and healthier students we advise that we implement later high school start times for our district.

   Developing bodies are not made to wake up at 6:00 am every morning. Psychology studies have shown that high school students need 8 to 10 hours of sleep, due to our circadian rhythm (internal clock), our bodies aren’t meant to wake up long before the sun comes up, so waking up early decreases awareness and energy. The American Psychological Association tells us that "During puberty, youth undergo a shift in their circadian clocks. That shift makes it hard for teens to fall asleep until later in the night." When we wake up when (or not long before) the sun comes up, we feel more prepared for the day and have more energy. With this increased awareness, the number of accidents decreases. The early wake up times leave students with a heavily decreased awareness. So, even if they don’t feel tired, they have a lack of focus. This lack of focus causes student drivers to be less aware of their surroundings, and often led to accidents (their fault or not) that could have been prevented. The National Institutes of Health report that "The results of our study in one of the largest school districts in the United States suggest that there is an association between a delay in high school start times and reduced rates of motor vehicle crashes among adolescent drivers." Therefore, this shows that later school start times increased focus/awareness and decreased the amount of accidents that students had on their way to/from school. About 90% of high school students do not get the recommended 8 to 9 hours of sleep that their bodies require, later start times would prove to be an essential step to students' physical and mental health.

   When students consistently wake up at early times this can lead to depression and even anxiety. A study found by the American Psychological Association states that "Anxiety and depression can skew sleep patterns. As rates of these conditions have increased, so has the number of kids coming to school bleary-eyed each morning. Pushing back start times has a direct impact on how much kids sleep. It's no surprise that teens wake up later when their school day starts later. Notably, though, they tend to go to bed around the same time." These facts tell us that teens will go to sleep at the same time no matter the time they need to be up for school. This also informs us that as late school start times increase, kids with depression and anxiety increase, and therefore students coming to school tired and unprepared also increases. The National Institute of Health reported that "Over two years, a sustained half-hour gain in weekday sleep expected as a result of the policy change to delay start times decreased depression symptoms by 15.6% of a standard deviation. The benefit was driven by a decrease in fatigue and sleep-related symptoms." This notifies us as a district that the mental health of students truly does improve with further sleep. As students get more sleep their chances of sleep-deprived depression and anxiety lessen, therefore they're in happier moods, and have an increase in motivation to work on their studies. The betterment of the students' mental health conditions would be tremendously improved if the district modified our school start time.

   While we're aware of the bus schedules and the order of high school, elementary school, then middle school start times, high school students would highly benefit from the switch of high school (7:30 am) to elementary (8:00 am) start times. A study conducted in Seattle, where high school start times were delayed by an hour, showed positive outcomes. It showed an increase in students' sleep duration, improved attendance, and better overall academic performance. Our district has the chance to adopt a similar approach by swapping start times with our elementary schools. By switching high school start times to the later elementary school start times, even the 30 minute difference between the two would prove to be exponentially better for high school students. Elementary school students best wake up time has proven to be around 6:00 am to 7:00 am, which is much different from the high school students recommended wake up time of 8:00am. We'd like to advise the district to switch around the school start times to elementary school (7:30 am), middle school (8:00 am), then high school (8:40am). However we do understand that high school students have jobs after school and may have to pick up their siblings from middle school or elementary school, though switching them around is really the best order to go by due to our circadian rhythm.  As we age into our teen years our biological clocks often make it difficult to sleep any earlier than 11:00 pm. Not getting our recommended 8 to 9 hours of sleep seriously damages our teenage growth and leaves our learning impaired. The 30 minute gain would likely be much appreciated by high schoolers and elementary students as it's much more appropriate due to their wake up times.

   We urge the school board to consider this change for the betterment of our student community. By signing this petition you are advocating for a healthier and more effective learning environment for our students. Help us in pushing for a shift towards a schedule that prioritizes our children's health and academic success. Please sign and support this movement towards a brighter educational future for our district!