This generation of children and young adults has been wrongly labeled as ‘lazy’ because many struggle to wake up early for school. Many kids complain that because they have to get up so early in the morning, they lack the energy they need to get through the day and excel in their school work. This cannot possibly be because every kid in North America is lazy. A large majority of the adolescent population is sleep deprived due to the – not surprisingly – lack of sleep that they are able to get because of how early schools currently begin. There is a stigma that kids are able to wake up early and do well, they are just making the decision not to. This is a large reason why parents and other adults tend to be closed-minded about changing school start times to be later. Parents and older generations tend to think that because they went to school early in the morning when they were young that their kids should be able to do it as well. This simply isn’t the case. 

Kids today have much more that is expected of them throughout their day than they have in the past, and this means that they have to make time to do things later at night when they should be sleeping. The Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement at the University of Minnesota conducted a study on teens to determine how many hours of sleep they should be getting a night in order to maintain their performance in school. This study found that teens who slept less than 8 hours were at significantly elevated risks for depression, substance abuse and lower grades (Shea). According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, only 26.5% of high school students get 8 hours of sleep each night (Shea). This is simply ridiculous. Nearly 75% of teenagers are not getting enough sleep, therefore, these kids are destined to fail. If kids are not getting these precious hours of shut eye, it opens the door to many more issues for kids and schools. 

Some studies say that 8 hours isn’t even enough. A 2006 study conducted by the National Sleep Foundation found that adolescents should sleep for 9 hours and 15 minutes each night (Winsler, 1). Even less of the teen population hits this benchmark. Fewer than 20% of teens in America get 9 hours and 15 minutes of sleep each night. There is an obvious problem in the majority of school districts around the country. If students aren’t even able to get sufficient amounts of sleep due to how early their classes begin, they can’t be expected to perform to their highest potential. This difference in performance due to sleep deprivation is particularly prevalent in students with a middle to upper class economical background (Youtube, DNews).

Many adolescents don’t get enough sleep and therefore do not perform as well academically, and are at significantly higher risk of developmental and sleep disorders; this is because adolescents have different biology than adults. Adolescents’ circadian rhythms are unique in the fact that their bodies do not allow them to even begin to get ready to sleep until 11 o’clock at night and it is difficult for them to wake up before 8 AM (McGill University). Post-doctoral student at McGill University, Genevieve Gariepy, was the lead author of a study published in the Journal of Sleep Research. Gariepy concluded that when teenagers go through puberty, their circadian systems get “delayed by two to three hours,” (McGill University.) This means that pre-pubescent children may get tired around 8 or 9 o’clock at night, but teens are virtually unable to fall asleep before 11 o’clock by no fault of their own. Changes in circadian rhythm regulation lead to increases in melatonin secretion (Carissimi). This is the reason why middle and high school students always seem to be tired. Their biology is changing and schools need to realize this and look for ways to help their students in this already stressful part of their lives. If kids are supposed to get 9 hours of sleep, wake up at 6 AM to get ready for school at 7:30 AM after going to bed at 11 PM, something needs to change. 

Because the majority of middle and high schools in America start as early as they do, we are setting up our children to fail. When we start expecting young adults to do the impossible, that is when this problem becomes an ethical issue. Middle school students shouldn’t be getting up at 6 AM when it is still dark outside to get ready to catch the bus. Most teens in middle and high school will have gone to bed after 10 or 11 o’clock the previous night due to all of their other responsibilities. This leaves them with less than the recommended amount of time to sleep and doesn’t set them up for success during the day. We have to decide whether we are going to give our kids the tools they need in order to succeed and live happy, healthy lives, or leave them being tired and over-extending themselves in their many endeavors.

The reoccurring issue with the school start times as they are, is the amount of sleep kids are getting, and how it affects their academic performance and mental health. Since there are extra-curricular activities, after school jobs, clubs, and hours of homework that young adults need to attend to at the end of each day, maybe we should look into starting the school day a little bit later to give them more time to rejuvenate their bodies so that they are able to do everything expected of them as students. We can’t change adolescents’ biology, but we have the ability to change the school start times.

Studies show that when schools start after 8 AM, students are able to get ample amounts of sleep and are happier and higher achieving. Even though this has been proven in multiple studies, only 20% of schools currently start after 8 AM. Even fewer schools, 17.7%, start after 8:30 AM (Fox). Over the years, academic curriculum has become more intense, homework volume has increased, and students are required to participate in multiple extra-curricular activities in order to be considered for colleges, scholarships and jobs. Parents and faculty are expecting 12 year olds to know how to manage their time and organize their priorities as well as an adult. This is not fair for them and this is – again – setting them up for failure. In order to apply for colleges and jobs, students must have good grades, extra-curricular activities, and previous work experience in order to be considered a competitive applicant. There simply is not enough time in the day for students to do all of these things and still get enough sleep at night. We might be able to alleviate some of the stress on our youth by pushing back the time schools start to after 8 AM. We, as a nation, have to ask ourselves: If all of these factors have increased, and so much more is expected of students than 20 years ago, why haven’t our school start times changed also?

Students at the majority of middle and high schools around America are unable to get enough sleep, and these schools tend to have lower test scores, lower graduation rates, increases in depression, and increases in substance use and abuse amongst students (Winsler, 3-11). While there is little to no information that states that starting schools later will cause significant harm to students’ overall well-being, the main issue with changing school start times is the money it will cost to do so. 

Changing the start times of public schools drastically will likely cost millions of dollars to taxpayers to fund the bussing services, who’s drivers will be working more hours. Many schools want to make the switch, but they simply cannot afford to do so. By keeping the start times for middle and high school students before 8 AM, schools save 30% more than schools who start after 8 AM. This issue, however, should not be the reason that schools refuse to change their start times. Schools would rather deal with tired, unmotivated students day in and day out than take initiative and budget their money elsewhere to give more money to the public school system, and this is unacceptable. When schools, such as the Glens Falls School District in Glens Falls, NY, change their start times by 40 minutes, the positive effect it has on students is clear (Shea). The success of the Glen Falls students and student around the world is the evidence that changing the start times, no matter what the price, is “worth the hassle,” according to superintendent Paul Jenkins (Shea). One study, conducted by Finley Edwards on the Wake County Public School System, even concluded that there was a 2.2% increase in math scores and a 1.5% improvement in reading scores amongst students when the school start time was pushed back an hour (Edwards). If graduation rates, test scores and overall student happiness will improve, then isn’t the money being spent worth it in the end?

Many schools would argue that the money isn’t worth their students’ well-being. While this is a sad truth that is seen all throughout the country, there is actually a way around their argument that many districts are refusing to look at. While moving the school start times back from 7:30 AM to 8:30 AM would likely cost millions of dollars to taxpayers and the school district, moving high schools and middle schools back 20 minutes and moving elementary schools back 10 minutes would cost absolutely nothing. This is what one school in Maryland did. After the then superintendent Joshua Starr of Montgomery County schools proposed moving the high school start time by 50 minutes to help students get more time to sleep, they found that it would cost $21 million a year to make the change (Fox). However, when they switched the start times in the high school and middle school to 20 minutes later, and the elementary schools to 10 minutes later, they were able to maintain their transportation costs and pay nothing extra (Fox). By simply switching the times around and moving the elementary, middle and high schools to start later in the morning by just a few minutes, they don’t have to pay bus drivers for more time and they are able to let their students get an extra 20 minutes of sleep (Fox).

While this only moved the start times for high school students to 7:45 AM, and 8:15 AM for middle school students, this is a step in the right direction. If more schools in the United States had the mindset that Montgomery County schools have, we could start to see more schools making the change to later start times gradually. If every 5 years there is a 20-minute shift in the school start times that would maintain the current transportation costs, in 15 years all high schools in America could be starting after 8 AM. There need to be gradual changes that will aim to please everyone and maintain the costs of the school districts to kick-start the process. Once other school districts start to see that small changes over time can actually make a difference and produce happier, higher achieving students, more people will start making the change to later start times. 

Another argument that stands against changing the school start times is that the school day is already structured around starting school before 8 AM, and changing this would compromise the structure of the rest of the day. The main issue that pushing the school start times back to 8 AM or later would create is that this may leave less time for sports, extra-curricular activities and other commitments after school. A 2001 study showed that the main reason why school administrators would rather start school earlier in the day is because of extra-curricular activities (Anderson). It may seem like moving the start time back would make a sizable impact on these factors, but it actually wouldn’t change much at all. If a high school in Alabama starts at 7:40 AM and the town decides to move it back to 8 AM to give its students an extra few minutes of sleep, like the Glen Falls schools, students’ academic performance and mental stability would improve, and their after-school activities would only have to be moved back twenty minutes. This issue is one that many people who are opposed to changing the school start times fixate on, but there is an easy solution to the problem.

Another concern is that the earlier start times are more convenient for parents’ work schedules (Anderson). Some would argue that if the start times were made to be later, that parents would have to shift around their entire work schedule to drop their kids off at school. This is simply not true. Changing school start times by 20 or 30 minutes is not going to make a parent lose their job. If the change in a child’s morning schedule due to their school starting later is communicated to a parent’s employer, this is an issue that can be easily resolved. In addition, this argument only accounts for a small percentage of parents. Only 10 to 14 percent of parents drive their kids to school in the mornings, so even if changing the start times did make a large impact on parents’ work schedule, it would not affect a large amount of families.

In order to solve the problem of sleep deprivation and help middle school and high school students be more attentive and higher achieving in school, the start times need to change nationwide. However, this is easier said than done. Each school district in each state has different opinions on the change and each has discrepancies in policies that would or wouldn’t allow the shift to occur. This means that it is going to take a lot of time and group effort for changes to start taking place, and for large-scale improvements to be seen.

The biggest obstacle to implementing the 8 AM start time nationwide, as stated previously, is the cost it will take to do so. If individual counties and school districts can commit to serious budgeting in other places such as community events or sports team apparel, and possible rises in taxes, they can dedicate more money to fund the transportation costs of bussing students later in the day to school. If schools are able to dedicate their time to making gradual changes over the next 15 years, there don’t even have to be huge budget cuts. Changes can be made without huge rises in taxes and millions of dollars in transportation costs, it will just take a lot of time and effort. The budgeting by the counties and school districts is the most popular obstacle that opposing parties like to focus on, but if we can change counties’ mindsets overall, changes can be made at little to no extra costs to the school districts. School activities can be moved back thirty minutes to compensate for the time lost in the morning, and kids will have more energy to participate in them with the extra sleep they will get. 

Every county in every state in America must begin to realize that we are setting up the youth of today for failure. Once it is accepted that schools start too early for teens to succeed, it is only then that we can begin to make wide-spread changes. If changes can be made to middle and high school start times to allow students to get at least 9 hours of sleep, there will be increases in happiness, lower depression and suicide rates, higher test scores and more motivated students overall. School districts must invest in the youth of today to help them in their quest of education so that they are able to succeed and excel in their future endeavors.
