School Start Time Change: An In‐Depth Examination of School Districts in the United States
ABSTRACT
In response to the scientific evidence documenting both profound developmental changes in sleep and circadian biology during adolescence and the myriad of negative health, performance, and safety outcomes risks associated with chronic sleep loss, at least 70 public school districts in the United States, representing approximately 1,000 schools, have successfully implemented a delay in high school start times. However, despite the compelling evidence supporting school start time change as a key strategy in addressing the epidemic of adolescent sleep loss, many school districts across the country with early high school start times have not considered the option to implement later bell schedules for adolescents. Moreover, while the current scientific literature has clearly documented the positive outcomes associated with delayed high school start times, these studies contain limited information regarding the process by which school districts consider, approve and implement bell schedule changes. Thus, this in‐depth examination of those school districts that have been successful in changing their bell schedules is intended to support the efforts of other districts in various stages of contemplating this measure. We utilized a multi‐pronged approach (literature review, case studies, telephone interviews, online survey) to summarize the experiences of school districts across the United States in regard to challenges faced, strategies employed, and lessons learned in the hope that this information will be a useful tool for other school districts looking to chart a course forward to promote the health, safety, and academic opportunities of their students.
Number of times cited: 27
- Deborah A. Temkin, Daniel Princiotta, Renee Ryberg and Daniel S. Lewin, Later Start, Longer Sleep: Implications of Middle School Start Times, Journal of School Health, 88, 5, (370-378), (2018).
- Arturo Arrona‐Palacios and Juan F. Díaz‐Morales, Morningness–eveningness is not associated with academic performance in the afternoon school shift: Preliminary findings, British Journal of Educational Psychology, 88, 3, (480-498), (2017).
- Geneviève Gariépy, Ian Janssen, Mariane Sentenac and Frank J. Elgar, School Start Time and the Healthy Weight of Adolescents, Journal of Adolescent Health, 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2018.01.009, 63, 1, (69-73), (2018).
- Karen A. Patte, Wei Qian, Adam G. Cole, Guy Faulkner, Jean-Philippe Chaput, Valerie Carson and Scott T. Leatherdale, School start time changes in the COMPASS study: associations with youth sleep duration, physical activity, and screen time, Sleep Medicine, 10.1016/j.sleep.2018.09.020, (2018).
- Gaby Illingworth, Rachel Sharman, Adam Jowett, Christopher-James Harvey, Russell Foster and Colin Espie, Pediatric issue-IPSA-2018 Challenges in implementing and assessing outcomes of school start time change in the UK: Experience of the Oxford Teensleep study, Sleep Medicine, 10.1016/j.sleep.2018.10.021, (2018).
- Geneviève Gariépy, Ian Janssen, Mariane Sentenac and Frank J. Elgar, School start time and sleep in Canadian adolescents, Journal of Sleep Research, 26, 2, (195-201), (2016).
- Giulia Zerbini and Martha Merrow, Time to learn: How chronotype impacts education, PsyCh Journal, 6, 4, (263-276), (2017).
- Clark J. Lee, Dennis M. Nolan, Steven W. Lockley and Brent Pattison, Law-based arguments and messages to advocate for later school start time policies in the United States, Sleep Health, 3, 6, (486), (2017).
- Ngan Yin Chan, Jihui Zhang, Mandy Wai Man Yu, Siu Ping Lam, Shirley Xin Li, Alice Pik Shan Kong, Albert Martin Li and Yun Kwok Wing, Impact of a modest delay in school start time in Hong Kong school adolescents, Sleep Medicine, 30, (164), (2017).
- Susan Kohl Malone, Terra Ziporyn and Alison M. Buttenheim, Applying behavioral insights to delay school start times, Sleep Health, 3, 6, (483), (2017).
- Terra D. Ziporyn, Beth A. Malow, Kari Oakes and Kyla L. Wahlstrom, Self-report surveys of student sleep and well-being: a review of use in the context of school start times, Sleep Health, 3, 6, (498), (2017).
- Arturo Arrona-Palacios, High and low use of electronic media during nighttime before going to sleep: A comparative study between adolescents attending a morning or afternoon school shift, Journal of Adolescence, 61, (152), (2017).
- Judith A. Owens, Tracy Dearth-Wesley, Allison N. Herman, J. Michael Oakes and Robert C. Whitaker, A quasi-experimental study of the impact of school start time changes on adolescent sleep, Sleep Health, 3, 6, (437), (2017).
- Daniel S. Lewin, Guanghai Wang, Yao I. Chen, Elizabeth Skora, Jessica Hoehn, Allison Baylor and Jichuan Wang, Variable School Start Times and Middle School Student's Sleep Health and Academic Performance, Journal of Adolescent Health, 61, 2, (205), (2017).
- Paul Kelley, Steven W. Lockley, Jonathan Kelley and Mariah D. R. Evans, Is 8:30 a.m. Still Too Early to Start School? A 10:00 a.m. School Start Time Improves Health and Performance of Students Aged 13–16, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 11, (2017).
- Robert Marx, Emily E Tanner-Smith, Colleen M Davison, Lee-Anne Ufholz, John Freeman, Ravi Shankar, Lisa Newton, Robert S Brown, Alyssa S Parpia, Ioana Cozma and Shawn Hendrikx, Later school start times for supporting the education, health, and well-being of high school students, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, (2017).
- Lisa J. Meltzer, Janise McNally, Amy E. Plog and Scott A. Siegfried, Engaging the community in the process of changing school start times: experience of the Cherry Creek School District, Sleep Health, 3, 6, (472), (2017).
- Jill Krueger, Nathaniel Counts and Brigid Riley, Promoting Mental Health and Well-Being in Public Health Law and Practice, The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 45, 1_suppl, (37), (2017).
- Rohit Kumar Pradhan and Niharika Sinha, Impact of commuting distance and school timing on sleep of school students, Sleep and Biological Rhythms, 15, 2, (153), (2017).
- Pamela Malaspina McKeever and Linda Clark, Delayed high school start times later than 8:30 am and impact on graduation rates and attendance rates, Sleep Health, 3, 2, (119), (2017).
- Kyla L. Wahlstrom and Judith A. Owens, School start time effects on adolescent learning and academic performance, emotional health and behaviour, Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 10.1097/YCO.0000000000000368, 30, 6, (485-490), (2017).
- Jennifer M. Bowers and Anne Moyer, Effects of school start time on students’ sleep duration, daytime sleepiness, and attendance: a meta-analysis, Sleep Health, 3, 6, (423), (2017).
- Devajyoti Deka, Impacts of standardizing school start time on children and household workers – An examination with NHTS data, Journal of Transport Geography, 59, (40), (2017).
- Anne G. Wheaton, Daniel P. Chapman and Janet B. Croft, School Start Times, Sleep, Behavioral, Health, and Academic Outcomes: A Review of the Literature, Journal of School Health, 86, 5, (363-381), (2016).
- Margaux Barnes, Krista Davis, Mackenzie Mancini, Jasmine Ruffin, Tina Simpson and Krista Casazza, Setting Adolescents Up for Success: Promoting a Policy to Delay High School Start Times, Journal of School Health, 86, 7, (552-557), (2016).
- Pamela V. Thacher and Serge V. Onyper, Longitudinal Outcomes of Start Time Delay on Sleep, Behavior, and Achievement in High School, Sleep, 10.5665/sleep.5426, 39, 2, (271-281), (2016).
- James G. Hodge, Kim Weidenaar, Andy Baker‐White, Leila Barraza, Brittney Crock Bauerly, Alicia Corbett, Corey Davis, Leslie T. Frey, Megan M. Griest, Colleen Healy, Jill Krueger, Kerri McGowan Lowrey and William Tilburg, Legal Innovations to Advance a Culture of Health, The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 43, 4, (904-912), (2015).
