Legislator wants groggy teenagers to get more sleep, start classes later
Coaxing groggy teenagers out of bed and onto an early morning school bus is a challenge for many parents. State Sen. Anthony Portantino says you can count him among them.
The Democrat from La Cañada Flintridge (Los Angeles County) says he’s struggled to get his own sleepy teenage daughter up and out the door on school days, and now he’s carrying SB328, which would make California the first state to prohibit public middle and high schools from starting first period before 8:30 a.m.
“If we want healthy kids and healthy schools, we should have a healthy start time based on science, biology and results,” Portantino said.
Research shows that twothirds of adolescents aren’t getting enough sleep and that the consequences are farreaching. The onset of puberty triggers changes in the body’s circadian rhythms, and the result, says the National Sleep Foundation, is that the typical high school student’s natural time to fall asleep shifts to 11 p.m. or later. Sleepy teens are more likely to slip into depression or use drugs and less likely to graduate from high school, the group says.
But there’s disagreement on the best way to address the problem. Some observers say parents need to buckle down and impose stricter bedtimes, while others, like the American Academy of Pediatrics, point to a “substantial body of
research” showing that later school start times alone can reverse the negative effects of sleep deprivation among teens.
California schools are now free to begin the school day whenever they like, and only 20 percent of middle and high schools start as late as Portantino’s bill would require. Many also have sports practices and offer “zero period” classes before the school day technically begins, although the bill would not prohibit these early options.
Opponents such as the California School Boards Association say SB328 would wreak havoc on working parents’ schedules and cause districts’ transportation costs to skyrocket.
Portantino says he’s siding with science and calls the proposal a response to a “public health crisis” that California shouldn’t ignore.
“Schools can’t use ceiling tiles with asbestos because we know it causes cancer. They can’t put lead paint on the walls because we know it causes brain damage. And we shouldn’t let them start school so early when we know it leaves our children sleep-deprived,” Portantino said.
The value of a good night’s sleep isn’t in dispute, said Nancy Chaires Espinoza, a lobbyist for the California School Boards Association, the measure’s biggest critic.
“We recognize the importance of sleep . ... And we don’t oppose
“We oppose this bill because we don’t think a one-size-fits-all approach will result in kids getting any more rest.” Nancy Chaires Espinoza, California School Boards Association
later school start times,” Chaires Espinoza said. “We oppose this bill because we don’t think a one-size-fits-all approach will result in kids getting any more rest.”
Chaires Espinoza predicts that most parents won’t be able to modify their work schedules to accommodate the policy change and that they’ll wind up dropping off their children around the same time they do now, regardless of whether school is in session.
Flipping bus schedules so that young children who naturally get up earlier get driven to school first wouldn’t work either, she said. That would require sending kids to elementary school in the dark for part of the year.
Chaires Espinoza also rejected the applicability of research that Portantino frequently cites as proof of his proposal’s value. The study tracked 9,000 students attending eight public high schools in three states and found that when schools start after 8:30 a.m., more than 60 percent of students were able to get at least eight hours of sleep. Those students reported fewer signs of depression, less caffeine use, better grades, higher standardized test scores and fewer absences, the study said.
Chaires Espinoza noted that the 2014 study, by University of Minnesota researcher Kyla Wahlstrom, wasn’t conducted in California.
The short-term benefits of later school start times may be well documented, but the longterm benefits are more murky, say Ian Campbell and Irwin Feinberg, UC Davis researchers who study adolescent sleep. They pointed to a 2016 study that examined the effect of a New York high school’s delayed start over several years and found that the increases in sleep that students experienced at first dissipated over time as they gradually pushed back their bedtimes. Sleepiness among adolescents may also be a function of biology, they said.
“It would be reckless to make such a sweeping change without the evidence to back it up, and we find the evidence in this case to be pretty weak,” Feinberg said.
SB328 has already cleared the state Senate and will be taken up by the Assembly Appropriations Committee when lawmakers return from summer recess later this month. Gov. Jerry Brown hasn’t commented on the legislation.