To the Superintendent and Board of Education, Highland Park, NJ School District:

As parents, students, and community members, we strongly urge you to move the school start times for the middle and high schools to 8:30 am or later for the upcoming school year. Numerous scientific studies have demonstrated that later school start times are beneficial for children and that earlier start times are in fact harmful to children’s health and well-being.

Available research illustrates that more sleep for tweens and teens is crucial to their mental health and well-being and also important for educational equity. Many studies point to the biological necessity of more sleep for adolescents and to the problems with early school start times. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has researched the effect of later start times and concluded with the recommendation that middle schools and high schools start no earlier than 8:30 am. The AAP notes, “...many middle and high school students are at risk for adverse consequences of insufficient sleep, including impairments in mood, affect regulation, attention, memory, behavior control, executive function, and quality of life.”

Currently, the Highland Park middle school bell time is 7:58 am, and the high school A period bell time is 7:48 am. Changing the start times would have an immediate, measurable effect on the students in Highland Park. Heather Turgeon and Julie Wright, authors of Generation Sleepless: Why Tweens and Teens Aren't Sleeping Enough and How We Can Help Them, point to a study of school schedule changes in Minnesota that found that when the school start time was moved to 8:40 am, kids were less likely to report feeling sad or depressed, hopeless about the future, tense, or worrying too much. They were also less likely to say they arrived late to class, fell asleep in class, or felt sleepy while taking a test, studying, or reading. The students gained more than an hour of sleep every night. Importantly, parents reported that they had better connections with their kids because kids were in better moods and because there was less rushing in the mornings. Several other scientific studies illustrate similar outcomes, including in Seattle, one of the country’s largest school districts to make the move to a later start time. Researchers at the University of Washington found that Seattle students got more sleep, and tardiness and absences went down after the time change. Later start times were also tied to improved academic outcomes: students scored 4.5% higher in a core class, biology, after the time change. The Generation Sleepless authors note: "If you are a high school principal, a school board member, a superintendent or similar, the only student-centered answer is to shift high school start times to 8:30 am or later. The logistical issues...will never outweigh the mental health and safety consequences to teenagers."

More research has shown that depression and anxiety among children and adolescents rose during the pandemic. Now, more than ever, it is crucial to foster an infrastructure that supports the health and well-being of our youth. Later school start times is one practical but crucial step that will help reduce stress in children, improve their physical well-being, and lead to better academic outcomes for all.

Jean Sinzdak and TJ Huttner, Parents of Students in Classes of 2025, 2027, and 2031