Essay On School Start Times

Even before the sun peeks over the horizon to begin a new day, millions of high school students across the country are already climbing into their cars or waiting at their bus stops. The average start time for high schools in the United States is 7:59 a.m., which fails to meet the American Academy of Pediatrics’ recommended start time of 8:30 a.m. (“Wake Up to Later Start Times”). Fairfax County Public Schools, the largest school district in Virginia and 10th largest in the nation, recently voted to start their high schools at 8 a.m. for the upcoming school year, 40 minutes later than their current start time of 7:20 a.m. (Shapiro). Fairfax and hundreds of other school districts are still far from allowing their students to obtain the full 9.5 …show more content…
Many high school students drive themselves to school, but often do so running on low amounts of sleep. Fatigued bodies can easily fall asleep at the wheel, succumbing to car crashes as they do so (Lahey). While the physical consequences seem daunting to hurdle, they can be fixed with simply more sleep, and therefore, later school start times. After a Kentucky school district pushed back start times by an hour, the average rate of teen car accidents decreased by 16.5% (Cheshire). The easy fix of pushing back start times produces life-saving results on students’ physical …show more content…
“The learning process for teenagers is more efficient if they can absorb and understand material the first time they are taught it.” Engaged, attentive students are those who have gotten a full night’s worth of sleep. If a simple change can bring about educational advances, why are schools not jumping on the chance to push back their start