School start times are presently one of the most hotly debated topics in the realm of education. Although change can be difficult, a plethora of scientific research, as well as adolescent biology, indicates that later start times are an optimal goal for the health and safety of all students.

Here is why:

• Academic benefits: One of the most significant effects of later start times is improved academic performance by students, proven to be the result of enforcing better rest for students.
• Economic benefits: Long-term economic beneficence is strongly associated with later start times due to improved professional and academic performance by students and reduced rates of vehicle accidents.
• Health benefits: Students are irrefutably healthier when better rested, as proven by the extensive research of various medical organizations.
• Emotional benefits: Various emotional and psychological benefits — which would accompany improved health — are also abundant in school systems that have espoused later start times. 
• Social benefits: Students may reap the benefits of an improved social life as a result of better rest were school start times to be made later.
• Safety benefits: Accident rates can be expected to plummet with better rest for students as the result of later start times.
• Athletic benefits: The health of athletes is dramatically improved by later start times as a result of improved rest.

Please visit our embedded links for more information regarding the topic and the benefits of later start times.

Thus, we urge the Collierville School Board to acknowledge the plight of Collierville's students and to push middle and high school start times back — as pediatricians suggest for adolescents — to improve the mental health, rest and comfort of its students, and thus the quality of life of those under its jurisdiction.