Wake up to the benefits of later high school bells

When school opens next month in Seattle, most high school starting bells will ring nearly an hour later than last year, putting Seattle in the growing ranks of districts that recognize a basic scientific fact: Teenagers are biologically built to stay up later and sleep later.

Yet as another school year begins, most U. S. middle and high schools — five out of six — still start earlier than 8: 30 a. m., the time recommended by many physicians and scientists. Which means that older students are sleep- walking through their first few periods, after failing to get the minimum eight- and- a- half hours of sleep their bodies crave.

Many of these crack- of- dawn school schedules were set, apparently in stone, decades ago when less was known about adolescent sleep cycles. And many people — except those who matter most, the students — have a stake in keeping them that way.

Coaches like the early schedule because it allows sports practices to start and end earlier. Parents want high school students home to care for younger ones or to work after- school jobs. Teachers like to beat rush- hour traffic. And bus schedules for entire districts are often structured around the early start for high schools and a later start for elementary schools. Human nature always finds change difficult.

But clinging to the status quo means two out of three high school students fail to get enough sleep. Sleepy students are more likely to be tardy, absent, inattentive in the morning and less able to learn.

In a small but growing number of school districts, science is winning out. Schools have found ways to accommodate change, often after lengthy battles. And, according to a number of studies, they’ve seen benefits.

A 2014 University of Minnesota study of 9,000 students in eight public schools with later start times in Colorado, Minnesota and Wyoming found 60% of students getting at least eight hours of sleep, a reduction in tardiness and fewer teen car crashes.

Several other studies, including one in two adjacent Virginia counties and one at a prep school in Rhode Island, have come to similar conclusions. The American Academy of Pediatrics has joined the push for later start, calling it a public health issue.

Challenges certainly exist. The biggest is often bus schedules. The same buses are used to pick up students in all grades at staggered times. Some districts have creatively solved the problem by shifting elementary schools to earlier start times, as high school start later. This has an added benefit: Younger children go to sleep earlier and wake up earlier.

Many of the predicted problems don’t materialize. Fairfax County, Va., just outside the nation’s capital, debated earlier start times for five years, voted to change in 2014, and gave parents and faculty a full year to adjust and prepare before the change came last year. Now, says the district’s spokesman, “We have met with many school systems to provide our lessons learned and share practical advice.”

On Sept. 7, Seattle will become one of the largest urban districts to push back start times and will add its experience to a growing body of research. Less tardiness and more attentive students should be enough to awaken more districts to the benefits of later start times for teenagers.

JOHN DAVIS, AP