What time should schools start?

The evidence is in… Kids – especially teens – benefit from a later school start time because of the beneficial impact on their sleep patterns.

I think we all know why Encino schools start around 8 AM, don’t we? It’s to accommodate the parents.

Parents worry they need to be at their early-starting jobs, and maybe that’s not a small thing, but shouldn’t this be about accommodating the kids? 8:30 AM or later would be much better. It may come as a shock for some to hear that there are schools in the US and abroad that start at 9 AM or later and there are some that start at 10!

Change comes slowly – the relatively new Birmingham Community Charter begins at 8:40 AM and, although their Parent/Student Manual reads like a prison manual (why is that, by the way?), it does show that changes to bell schedules can be made.

Still the opposition to change is intense and inflexible – because “we’ve always done it this way.” Some parents worry about after-school sports, some worry about juggling daycare, some say an early start builds character. Many students agree with them. But none of them are taking the research seriously. Here is the latest study, published in the July issue of the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine – it was picked up by most major news organizations, including the LA Times (here).

Many modern companies now allow flexible work schedules and have a happier more productive work force. You would think this could be applied to modern schools too, wouldn’t you? We might have happier, better educated kids.