To improve kids’ mental health, some schools start later

They seek to ease strain after years of virtual learning

DREXEL HILL, Pa. — In the hours before he’s due at Upper Darby High School, senior Khalid Doulat has time to say prayers, help his mother, or prepare for track practice.

It’s a welcome shift from last year for him and thousands of students at the school, which pushed its start time back by more than two hours — from a 7:30 a.m. start time to 9:45 a.m. One goal for the change: to ease strains on students that were more visible than ever coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I’ll be honest, I’ve been much happier in the mornings,” Doulat said. “I’ve been more positive, and I’ve come to school smiling more rather than, you know, grudging out of bed and stuff like that at 7:30.”

The idea of later school start times, pushed by many over the years as a way to help adolescents get more sleep, is getting a new look as a way to address the mental health crisis affecting teens across the United States.

For some schools, the pandemic allowed experimentation to try new schedules. Upper Darby, for one, initially considered later start times in 2019. Ultimately, it found a way to do it this year by using distance learning as a component of the school day.

As students first came back to in-person learning, many dealt with mental health struggles and behavioral issues, Upper Darby Superintendent Daniel McGarry said. Officials saw a breakdown in students respecting the authority of teachers in the classroom.

“We had a lot of those things that we were facing and we’re still working our way through it; we’re in a much better place,” McGarry said. “I think our kids feel better. They’re not 100 percent better.” But, he said, much of the social anxiety students felt after being in online school has dissipated.

During the pandemic, soaring numbers of high school students expressed persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, with girls and LGBTQ+ youth reporting the highest levels of poor mental health and suicide attempts. It doesn’t help that research suggests middle and high school students aren’t getting enough sleep.

“These mental health challenges are already going to happen and then, with the absence of sleep, are much worse,” said Orfeu Buxton, director of the Sleep, Health & Society Collaboratory at Penn State University. “The same with decision making, suicidal ideation, those kinds of things.”

The reasons why high schools start as early as they do — many begin their day before 7:30 a.m. — are “lost to the sands of history,” Buxton said. But now, he said, “everything is baked into that: traffic light patterns, bus schedules and adults’ work.”

Nationally, at least nine states are considering legislation related to school start times, up from four the previous year, according to the National Conference on State Legislatures. California in 2019 became the first and only state to dictate school start times.

Large school systems, including Denver, Philadelphia, and Anchorage, have been looking into later start times.

It can require innovation to forge a new schedule.

At Upper Darby High, the school day technically still begins at 7:30 a.m., with students assigned coursework to be done remotely that ties into their lessons for the day. But they can use the early morning hours as they see fit — they can meet with teachers during office hours, sleep in, or finish other homework. Ultimately, the work assigned for the early morning needs to be done, but when is up to students.

The day still ends by 3 p.m. Principal Matthew Alloway said educators have noticed fewer students sleeping in class.