Early to rise? Not so much

U.S. states would realize roughly US$9 billion a year in economic gains by instituting a simple, nationwide policy change: starting public school classes no earlier than 8:30 a.m., according to a new study

THE BENEFITS

The conclusion comes from an exhaustive new study by the Rand Corp., the first of its kind to model the nationwide costs and benefits of later school start times. The economic benefits would come primarily from two sources: greater academic performance (and hence, lifetime earnings) among more well-rested students, and reduced rates of car crashes among sleepy adolescent drivers. Those benefits would greatly outweigh the annual costs of implementing the policy change, which include the price of reorganizing school bus schedules (estimated at US$150 per student per year) and a flat, one-time cost of US$110,000 per school to install infrastructure, like lighting, to support later dismissals, sports practices and other student activities.

WIN-WIN

“The significant economic benefits from simply delaying school start times to 8.30 a.m. would be felt in a matter of years, making this a win-win, both in terms of benefiting the public health of adolescents and doing so in a costeffective manner,” said study co-author Wendy Troxel.

BRAIN WIRING

Researchers have identified early school start times as a public health problem. Adolescents’ brains are wired to go to sleep late and wake up late, making it difficult for them to get a good night’s sleep before a 7:30 a.m. first-period class. Sleep deprivation in teens has been linked to everything from poor health to bad academic performance to criminal activity. “The evidence strongly suggests that a too-early start to the school day is a critical contributor to chronic sleep deprivation among American adolescents,” the American Academy of Pediatrics wrote in 2014. “The AAP urges middle and high schools to aim for start times that allow students to receive 8.5 to 9.5 hours of sleep a night. In most cases, this will mean a school start time of 8:30 a.m. or later.”

EARLY START

The overwhelming majority of schools start before 8.30 a.m. Only 18 per cent of the nation’s school districts start classes at 8:30 a.m. or later, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nationwide the average starting time for high school and middle school classes is 8:03 a.m. In some states it’s considerably earlier — Louisiana starts classes at around 7:40 a.m., on average. Many schools in the state start even earlier than that.

TRANSPORT

School districts have traditionally balked at rearranging their schedules, however. A chief obstacle is transportation: school districts usually send high school students to class earlier than elementary school kids, allowing for a staggered bus schedule, a smaller bus fleet and fewer drivers. Ditching that system to get everyone to school at the same time would require more buses and drivers, costing a school district roughly US$150 per student, according to a 2011 Brookings Institution analysis.