There is a great deal of research available that shows secondary school students greatly benefit with later school day starting times, allowing for more sleep before the beginning of the school day. As a result, the HSE School District is in the early stages of exploring what is described as “flipping” school day start times, with younger students starting the day earlier and secondary students starting school later in the morning.
Administrators are also looking into shortening the student day in HSE Schools. Assistant Superintendent Jan Combs says HSE District students have the longest student day in Hamilton County and one of the longest in the entire state.
“At the elementary, we are currently 75 minutes over what the state requires,” Combs told the school board Wednesday night. “We are looking at maybe a model that would cut 15 minutes. At the secondary, we are 50 minutes over what the state requires. We’re looking at a model that might cut 20 minutes.”
No school officials were able to clearly explain how HSE Schools ended-up with so many class minutes over state requirements.
Superintendent Allen Bourff intends to conduct community meetings to gather public input on the “flipping” of school day start times and reducing the number of minutes in class each day. Dr. Combs said the goal is to have a decision by early in the second semester of the current school year, with implementation of any changes to begin in the fall of 2020.
“We’re in the very, very early stages of these conversations,” said Combs.
Awesome!
Noblesville began that this school year.
Sad
Ok minutes were added years ago to help make up for snow days we needed the “ minutes.” How soon we forget. Meanwhile, hope they take a look at the daycare issues that are going on in Noblesville because the younger kids start earlier not enough after school care.
Flipping times would be a huge mistake. In districts where this flip changed, we see many negative consequences. Research shows no improvement in achievement by secondary students starting later. Secondary students do not want to be at school even later for many reasons. Some high schools have seen a +50% drop in participation in after school extracurricular activities. High school students have less time to work in apprenticeships or work jobs to save for college. Students are staying up even later to get homework done causing them to be just as tired as they were when they started earlier. Teachers who sponsor clubs or coach are dropping these roles because they already get home late enough and miss time with their families and this change takes another hour away of their family time each day. With us being on Eastern Time, it makes sense for secondary to go first so parents can leave after young kids get on the bus and older siblings are at home for them when they return from school.
I am against changing start times. I suspect this research didn’t happen in Indiana where we operate in the “wrong” time zone for our sunset times. It’s hard enough putting little kids to bed when the sun is still out; if we have to move bedtime 30-60 minutes earlier, it will be near impossible to convince them to go to bed! An earlier bedtime also disrupts dinner scheduling and severely reduces the evening time that working parents have with their youngest kids. What parent wants to start the bedtime process at 6:30 pm?!?
Many impacts of this proposed change have not been evaluated. I hope all aspects will be considered before deciding. (I recognize the theoretical benefit of the research. (But Nick makes strong counter-arguments in his comment above as well.) I suspect a later start time for teens will just mean, for most, that they stay up later in their room before falling asleep, negating the benefit and keeping the drawbacks.)
I’m glad HSE is looking into this and that there are discussions about the pros and cons. A later start time for high schoolers is what the medical literature supports. The American Academy of Pediatrics and American Academy of Sleep Medicine supports this with the recommendation of start times of 8:30 AM or later for middle schools and high schools. Here’s what the medical research has demonstrated so far with a growing body of evidence showing that delaying start times in high school positively impacts student health and achievement as well as safety; attendance rates and graduation rates significantly improved in schools with delayed start times of 8:30am or later; later start times also generally has been shown to be associated with improved attendance, less tardiness, less falling asleep in class, better grades, and fewer motor vehicle crashes. I’m unaware of any medical research demonstrating any negative effects on high schoolers. It is less clear if there are any negative (or positive) consequences, however, for an earlier start time for elementary school kids.
For me personally from a childcare perspective, elementary school starts so late, that I have to pay for before and after school care. Finding split care is more problematic for me than if it were just one or the other. At least with an earlier elementary start time, I would just have to pay for after school care.
I am so happy the administration is considering flipping start times. With the current schedule teens and tweens are forced into an unhealthy sleep routine just as their circadian rhythm starts to change. https://www.uclahealth.org/sleepcenter/sleep-and-teens “One change in the body during puberty is closely related to how you sleep. There is a shift in the timing of your circadian rhythms. Before puberty, your body makes you sleepy around 8:00 or 9:00 pm. When puberty begins, this rhythm shifts a couple hours later. Now, your body tells you to go to sleep around 10:00 or 11:00 pm.” Elementary age students naturally fall asleep earlier and wake up earlier. Please take into consideration the health and well-being of all students and what scientific evidence supports.
Research also says that cell phone usage needs limited and can lead to distraction and negative self esteem and bullying. But phone use is allowed freely in the majority of our high school classes, at both schools. Maybe we could start by banning cell usage during even high school classes and see how that helps the students currently?
High schoolers will not get more sleep with this adjustment, they will still have the same amount of work to do. They will simply stay up even later to accomplish it.