Call for middle and high schools to start later

EASTON - Leading health organizations such as the Centers for Disease Control, American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association have called for middle and high schools to start after 8:30 a.m. as announced in a press release by Start School Later.

Start School Later is a nonprofit organization that works to ensure school start times are compatible with health, safety, education and equity.

The press release was sent out to bring awareness to the issue of adolescents being the most sleep-deprived age group in America. A national conference on teen sleep and school start times is being held in Washington D.C. on Thursday, April 27, and Friday, April 28. The conference will bring health experts and community leaders together to learn how to adopt healthier, safer and more effective schedules in more school districts.

"This conference is an unprecedented opportunity to bridge the divide between sleep research and education policy to improve health outcomes," said Phyllis Payne, implementation director at Start School Later.

According to the press release, during puberty humans experience unique biological changes that temporarily delay the sleep cycle by two to three hours. Waking teens around dawn for school disrupts these natural sleep cycles at a time when brains and bodies are still developing, adversely affecting growth, judgment, impulse control, short-and long-term health, driving safety, school performance and more.

"Although it might look good on paper if they start school later, there are a lot of other parameters that the school system and boards have to look at, like transportation," James Newcomb, president of the Caroline County Board of Education, said.

Newcomb said Caroline County only has one set of buses that run for the elementary school and the high school and that these drivers typically get about six hours of work a day.

"If we had to change that schedule without making elementary schools start earlier that means we would need more buses and more drivers but the drivers would get less hours," Newcomb said. "We have a hard time finding people who just want to work six hours a day, so it would be even more difficult to find people who want to work three hours a day."

Sleep and policy experts across the nation are slated to speak at the conference, including Dr. Dean Beebe, a psychologist who conducts research on the impact of deficient sleep among adolescents for Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine in Ohio.

"We know that about half of U.S. adolescents regularly sleep seven hours or less on school nights," Beebe said. "It's not that they don't need more. Most are making the best out of a bad situation. Our research is showing us that it helps to get them even an hour more sleep."

Payne said when morning wake times align with adolescent body clocks, students are more alert and prepared to learn. In addition, students gain sleep and have sleep-wake patterns that are consistent across weekdays and weekends - another measure of health.

Payne also said that shifting to a later morning school start time has proven time and again to improve health, well-being, safety and learning.

"I just don't think we have the flexibility to do that at this point," Debbie Gardner, coordinator of public relations and special programs at Talbot County Public Schools, said. "I don't know whether it would be better or worse, but it is not something we have been able to do thus far."

Gardner said Talbot County would also have an issue with transportation because their primary and secondary schools share buses. She also added that it would affect sports, since the schools have after-school practices and a lot of students have to travel a decent way to get there.

"It's not a bad idea but it generates a lot of challenges and like any decision you have to make the best decision you can with all the information you have," Newcomb said. "And sleep by itself - you can't just look at only that to make a decision. There is merit to it, I just don't think it suits our system."