Lake Washington School District in WA to start high schools after 8:20 am
Lake Washington School District in WA to start high schools after 8:20 am
The Issue
The benefit of starting high schools after 8:20 am far outweighs the compromise a school district needs to make.
Benefits:
* Adolescents are biologically unable to fall asleep that early. The average American teenager is chronically sleep-deprived.
* Sleep deprivation can lead to depression, stress, suicidal thoughts, delinquent behavior, obesity, and car crashes.
* When school began later, grades and attendance went up. The benefit is especially true for students who are economically disadvantaged or have disabilities that are mental or psychological.
* To prepare for healthy breakfast and lunch in the morning is hard for parents. For the 7:30-school start, a parent has to get up at 6 am. It is a lot to ask for a single-parent household, working parents, and a family with multiple kids. Skimming through breakfast due to the lack of time is another problem.
* Much LWSD staff live far away given the high cost of houses in the area, so a later start allows them not to get up too early.
* Period 0 like a choir: would not need to start at 6:30 am if the school starts later.
* Safety can improve if student drivers are less sleepy and students have less depression and suicidal thoughts caused by the lack of sleep.
Regarding objections:
* Prepare for life: most adults do not need to start work before 8 am, so we do not need to train high schoolers for it.
* School bus scheduling difficulty: parents send kids to bus stop more vs. carpooling with the 7:30 schedule. The districts having later high-school-start showed that one-hour difference between elementary and high school start is sufficient for bus schedules. Elementary schools start at 9:20 am in the district, so it is doable for high schools to start at 8:20 am.
* Sports: morning warm-up is still possible at period 0. The long afternoon practice may not be the best from a health perspective.
These school districts in the area have the high schools start after 8 am: Seattle (8:45 or 8:55 am), Bainbridge Island (8:40 am), North shore (8:15 am), Mercer island (8 am), Bellevue (8 am), Issaquah (8 am).
This article mentioned the benefit achieved after a later start. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/at-these-schools-later-start-times-get-an-a-plus-for-youths-needing-more-sleep/2019/02/08/e1e6a23c-23ef-11e9-81fd-b7b05d5bed90_story.html
This research and the others after it showed the harm of sleep deprivation. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25178930/
2,092
The Issue
The benefit of starting high schools after 8:20 am far outweighs the compromise a school district needs to make.
Benefits:
* Adolescents are biologically unable to fall asleep that early. The average American teenager is chronically sleep-deprived.
* Sleep deprivation can lead to depression, stress, suicidal thoughts, delinquent behavior, obesity, and car crashes.
* When school began later, grades and attendance went up. The benefit is especially true for students who are economically disadvantaged or have disabilities that are mental or psychological.
* To prepare for healthy breakfast and lunch in the morning is hard for parents. For the 7:30-school start, a parent has to get up at 6 am. It is a lot to ask for a single-parent household, working parents, and a family with multiple kids. Skimming through breakfast due to the lack of time is another problem.
* Much LWSD staff live far away given the high cost of houses in the area, so a later start allows them not to get up too early.
* Period 0 like a choir: would not need to start at 6:30 am if the school starts later.
* Safety can improve if student drivers are less sleepy and students have less depression and suicidal thoughts caused by the lack of sleep.
Regarding objections:
* Prepare for life: most adults do not need to start work before 8 am, so we do not need to train high schoolers for it.
* School bus scheduling difficulty: parents send kids to bus stop more vs. carpooling with the 7:30 schedule. The districts having later high-school-start showed that one-hour difference between elementary and high school start is sufficient for bus schedules. Elementary schools start at 9:20 am in the district, so it is doable for high schools to start at 8:20 am.
* Sports: morning warm-up is still possible at period 0. The long afternoon practice may not be the best from a health perspective.
These school districts in the area have the high schools start after 8 am: Seattle (8:45 or 8:55 am), Bainbridge Island (8:40 am), North shore (8:15 am), Mercer island (8 am), Bellevue (8 am), Issaquah (8 am).
This article mentioned the benefit achieved after a later start. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/at-these-schools-later-start-times-get-an-a-plus-for-youths-needing-more-sleep/2019/02/08/e1e6a23c-23ef-11e9-81fd-b7b05d5bed90_story.html
This research and the others after it showed the harm of sleep deprivation. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25178930/
2,092
Petition created on March 20, 2022