Schools across California are now starting later in the day, would you like to start later in the day?

On July 1^st, 2022, a law was put in place across California schools which sets the start of school to 8:30 AM. Currently, public schools in Connecticut start at 7:39 AM, this would be an hour and 31 minutes added to sleep.

The bill was first introduced to congress back in February 2017. The bill states: “The school day for high schools, including high schools operated as charter schools, shall begin no earlier than 8:30 a.m. The school day for middle schools, including middle schools operated as charter schools, shall begin no earlier than 8:00 a.m.”. The American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended schools start no earlier than 8:30 a.m. since 2014, which not only means a win for the AAP, but for teenagers too!

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends that children ages 13-18 should get 8-10 hours of sleep per day. The side effects to lack of sleep include becoming overweight, not engaged in daily physical activity, depression, unhealthy behaviors (ex. Drinking, smoking, and other drugs), performing poorly in school, and more.)

When interviewed, 10 out of 13 students said that they wanted to start school later. James, a freshman, said that he wanted to start later because it would allow him to sleep more. Another freshman said that he wanted to start at the same time because starting later would also mean ending later, which was he did not want to do because it would cut more time out of after school activities.

An increase in sleep could improve test scores, make kids, happier and healthier. Kids are excited about this later start time, though the extra sleep has been proven necessary, this would also mean that school would end later which could impede on after school activities. What would you want? Would you want to start later and end later? Or keep the early start time?