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Education United States

California Late Start Law Aims To Make School Less of a Yawn (apnews.com) 168

Hmmmmmm shares a report from the Associated Press: Beginning this fall high schools in the nation's most populous state can't start before 8:30 a.m. and middle schools can't start before 8 a.m. under a 2019 first-in-the-nation law forbidding earlier start times. Similar proposals are before lawmakers in New Jersey and Massachusetts. Advocates say teens do better on school work when they're more alert, and predict even broader effects: a reduction in suicides and teen car accidents and improved physical and mental health.

The average start time for the nation's high schools was 8 a.m. in 2017-18 but about 42% started before then, including 10% that began classes before 7:30 a.m., according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Middle school start times in 2011-12, the most recent available from NCES, were similar. That's too early for adolescents whose bodies are wired to stay up later than at other ages because of a later release of the sleep hormone melatonin, scientists say. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that middle and high schools start at 8:30 a.m. or later. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends eight-10 hours of sleep per night for 13- to 18-year-olds.

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California Late Start Law Aims To Make School Less of a Yawn

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  • About time (Score:5, Interesting)

    by lsllll ( 830002 ) on Saturday July 02, 2022 @12:44AM (#62667528)

    About time those knuckleheads in California did something that makes sense. Everybody knows high school kids are night dwellers and most teenagers are late sleepers. By forcing high school kids to come to school at 7:00 AM you're literally depriving these kids of sleep time. But don't take my word for it. Here [psd202.org] are the school start times in my district. Yeah, that's right. Kids who go to bed at 1 AM are required to show up at 7:05 AM, while elementary school kids whose bed times are normally around 8:00 PM start the school day at 9:05 AM. Gotta hand it to fucktards in my city.

    The thing is, I understand a bit of what's going on, although I don't agree with it. They want parents who have a 9-5 job to be able to drive their elementary kids to school (which doesn't actually work, because 9:05 is too late a start), and then they want the high school kids to get out at 2:00 so that they can double time it to home and be ready for the elementary kids to have someone watches them while the parents are still at work. But it doesn't always work like that. First of all many families don't have kids who are in high school and elementary at the same time. Secondly, many high school kids actually go to work after school. So, the end result is that high school kids get little sleep and elementary school kids wake everybody up at 5:00 AM and then watch cartoons and TV for 3.5 hours. We sure know how to do things backwards.

    • by antdude ( 79039 )

      IIRC, my CA high school had a few classes at 7 AM. In college, 7:30 AM. They were optional since no one had to go to them at early. They were later hours.

  • My solution (Score:5, Interesting)

    by spaceman375 ( 780812 ) on Saturday July 02, 2022 @01:07AM (#62667548)
    I knew in high school that I needed more sleep than the early start times allowed. So I started napping. Come home, be in bed around 4, up for dinner after 2 hours, and I could stay up 'till 1am and still be fresh 5 or 6 hours later. Nobody hits the bars in college before 9 or 10, so napping continued. Now in my 60s I've read that daytime sleeping is an indicator of dementia and earlier death: screw that, I love my naps. and dream recall is far better than when I force myself to follow one daily block of sleep with no respite at "tea time." I'm all for kids getting more sleep - high school really should start at 9am or later. Teachers can have a real 9 to 5 job like most people, not 7 to 3, which is more appropriate for grammar school. Follow the science rather than second guessing parent's schedules for their supposed convenience, and we'll get plenty of societal benefits. I'd even compare this to taking lead out of gas: 30 years later there's a big drop in violence. I suspect a similar impact, plus a boosting of talent, skills, and academic success, within a decade or less of adopting later high school start times.
    • Teachers can have a real 9 to 5 job like most people, not 7 to 3

      What? Who has a 9 to 5 job? Nobody, office jobs are all 8 to 5. Less a half-hour lunch and two legally mandated 15 minute breaks, that makes an 8 hour day, which is the standard.

      • I'm here 9 to 6 and you like it or I find something else.

        Nobody in their right mind wants me to work for them before 9am. Unless productivity doesn't really matter to you, then carry on.

        • I actually have had some 9 to 6 time, which was nice. I could come in an hour early or late to my Tivoli job. Most things about that job sucked, though, notably excepting beer on Friday. It didn't really make up for the IBMization of the place, though, and AFAIK it has not survived.

          I am actually at my most productive between about 6 and noon, those are my ideal work hours. And plenty of them per day, I think :)

          • I'm most productive somewhere between 3pm and midnight, that one time I worked for a company in San Diego (from Europe) was maybe the one job where I was the best rested and most efficient because I could actually work these hours.

            I have a coworker like you. He comes at 6 and by 3pm, he's gone. I come around 9-10, we can share information and exchange some ideas, but both of us have ample time to work peacefully. And the office is staffed 12-14 hours a day instead of just 8, so our boss is happy, too.

      • Nobody, office jobs are all 8 to 5 You seriously think "ALL" office jobs are 8 to 5?
      • Oddly, that depends somewhat on your time zone. TV controls so much of our lives that people in the Central time zone are typically in bed an hour earlier than people in the Eastern time zone because the morning and evening news shows and prime time shows come on and end an hour earlier. Consequently, office hours in the Eastern time zone tend to start at 8 AM and office hours in the Central time zone tend to be closer to 7 AM. I noted this when I moved to St. Louis and the factories and offices typically h
    • So I started napping.

      So did I. Usually from about 8am to 1-3pm (depending on when school ended).

    • I knew in high school that I needed more sleep than the early start times allowed. So I started napping.

      You seem to be the only sane poster here who recognises that sleep depravation is something within *your* control. Kudos for not trying to blame the government for your lack of sleep like every other poster here.

      I hated waking up early for school but ultimately I figured going to bed at 10pm and getting a good nights rest was worth it. The problem then came on the weekends where I would literally jetlag myself suddenly switching a 10pm bedtime for a 3am one. :-/

  • I had water polo practice at 5AM, "Zero-Hour" at 6:45, and first period started at 8:00. Oh, and water polo again after school.

    While miserable, it did at least prepare me for college and having 20-30% more credits per semester for the first few years than "normal." (Needed to get all the prerequisites out of the way, or you would end up a year behind if you didn't finish them because they were only offered in the spring or fall.)

    • All my school taught me was basically how to sleep with my eyes open without the idiot droning on in front of me noticing. Which prepared me nicely for both military service and management meetings.

  • by VeryFluffyBunny ( 5037285 ) on Saturday July 02, 2022 @02:03AM (#62667600)
    "People who get up early start wars & cause famine." - Banksy
  • by misnohmer ( 1636461 ) on Saturday July 02, 2022 @03:20AM (#62667662)
    Our kids were homeschooled until at least high school (their choice when to enter the regular school system). Even though they participated in lots of activities with other kids (for example our daughter used to do 25+ hrs a week doing gymnastics for example) they were almost never sick compared to other kids (even though they were around the sick kids all the time). I could try to selfishly attribute this to genetics, but honestly, the one factor I think my kids had over the other kids was getting sufficient sleep. I also noticed other home schooled kids having similar advantage, so there appears to be something to it. I'm an engineer, not a doctor, but based on my person observations, I think it's a good idea for society to allow the kids to get sufficient sleep most days.
  • If they want school to be less of a yawn, they might want to teach something the kids can actually use. We're still stuck in a curriculum of fact rote learning, in a time when that information is available at the push of a button, anywhere and anytime. What we need to teach is problem solving skills and cooperation tactics.

    Ok, granted, we do that inadvertently, by students figuring out ways to cheat without getting caught and how to crib from the neighbor.

    • If they want school to be less of a yawn, they might want to teach something the kids can actually use. We're still stuck in a curriculum of fact rote learning, in a time when that information is available at the push of a button, anywhere and anytime. What we need to teach is problem solving skills and cooperation tactics.

      Most parents and teachers would agree with you. Even the students would be on board with that. However, how do you grade problem solving skills and cooperation tactics? Even worse, how do you grade problem solving skills in a way that doesn't give Karen a means to contest the grade because her little angel got a 'C', and it's a child's word against the teachers? Understanding history is vitally important, but there's not a lot of problem solving involved in learning it. Group projects are commonly panned be

      • "Karen, fuck off, if you don't like it, take your kids to another school, or homeschool them ... oh wait, you won't do that, after all, you only abuse the school as a convenient place to dump your spawn so it doesn't bother you"

        That being said, there's no need to grade anything. Teach kids and if they learn, they learn. If they don't, they don't. Finally drop a project on them that they should be able to solve if they learned something, if they manage it, great, if they don't, well, there's always food stam

  • Schools here (Scotland) generally start between 8.30 and 9. Why do they start so early in America? I can't imagine that teachers want to start that early.
    • Even that's too early. My school started at 9. I was often late. I've never been a morning person.

      I now start work at 10.

      • California is further south than Scotland and so must have more stable daylight hours. In many tropical countries, 8:00 AM would be considered late.
    • by splutty ( 43475 )

      0800-0900 seems to be normal for most "Western" countries I've been to. The US is an extreme outlier in school starting (and in a lot of other school related things, but let's not go there).

      The general reasoning for that is going back 100 years so children could go to school and then in the afternoon help their parents with getting the harvest in and with chores.

      Like so many things in the US, the reasoning behind things seems to go back 100's of years sometimes and really aren't 'of this time'.

    • Where I grew up and where my kinds grew up a common factor was the number of buses the school district has available.

      Typically start times for elementary, junior high and high school were adjusted to optimize bus usage because there weren't enough (costs too much) to accommodate all at the same start time.
    • Schools here (Scotland) generally start between 8.30 and 9. Why do they start so early in America? I can't imagine that teachers want to start that early.

      Because in 'Murica they don't have 5 miles to walk up hill both ways to get to school? /sarcasm

  • When I went to a, rather expensive, school in England some decades ago, there was a school assembly at 08:30 and the first lesson was at 09:00. That is reasonable. A first class at 08:00 or 07:30 is definitely not!

    I am aware from films and TV that you want us to believe that you set your alarms to wake up at 6 but I assumed that this may not be true or, if it is, it is because you have no public transport and have to all drive into work on your 32 lane highways.

    Am 07:30 start is really stupid and 08:00 is

  • by xaosflux ( 917784 ) on Saturday July 02, 2022 @06:26AM (#62667806) Homepage

    What this is glossing over is two things:

    There are only so many buses and drivers, by having staggered starts between the traditionally earlier high school time and the later primary school time - the same buses and drivers can be used to serve both sets of routes.

    Secondly, by having high schoolers get out earlier it opens up scheduling that can be used for: after school jobs, sports, extra circular activities, and even being able to get home to take care of younger siblings before parents get home.

    • The counter to those arguments is the knowledge that high school age kids naturally have a shifted sleep cycle (due to being in a key high growth phase physically and mentally) and are significantly impacted by early start times and less sleep.
  • I have lived in 2 places where I knew the school schedule - eastern PA and eastern MA. In both places elementary school started at ~9, middle school started at 8:20-8:30, and high school started at 7:20-7:30. I always thought this was the norm, not the 10% exception, but apparently so:

    https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2020/2... [ed.gov]

    The logic I was always told was that it was a bussing problem - a limited number of buses that needed to transport all the grades. I wonder if CA is supplementing school district budgets to be

  • I always thought it was flat out crazy that my kids had to get on a bus at 6:xx

    (Which meant of course that I had to get up even earlier ... go ahead, brag about your perfect kids, but I had to, lol)

  • I think it's cruel to have school start before 9:00AM for teenagers; their bodies are just not wired for early mornings.

    We all know the real reasons for early start times: To make it easier for parents to park their kids at school before they head out to work.

    • In High School, I had to be there at 7 am for 45 min in the weight training and the rest for drills. Then you had to shower and be in class by 8:30.

  • My kids went to California public schools. The local middle and high schools had a period 0, where students could show up around 7 AM to take an extra class. Some used this for PE, others for an extra language or AP class. Lots of the kids doing this were pretty happy about it because they're all overachievers.

    Regardless of whether this is good or bad, I'm curious what the law says about this. Without period 0, those kids might not be able to join sports teams and/or will be finishing school really late.

    Per

    • by PPH ( 736903 )

      Lots of the kids doing this were pretty happy about it because they're all overachievers.

      Not acceptable to differentiate over/under achievers. It sounds like a great idea, IMO. But a 'period 0' showing up in students' transcripts will set them apart from their classmates.

      Bucket of crabs.

  • Set your watch ahead two or three hours. Don't like getting up until 9AM? Fine. Just live your life in your own personal time zone.

  • The moral of this story is that California passes WAYYYY too many laws, thinking they are going to control everything in people's lives because they know better, while all the time claiming that they are the guardians of democracy and freedom.

  • HS is the last stage of preparation for work or college. It's purpose is to prepare you for either. It should be moving individuals closer to the lifestyle necessary for doing either of those things as an independent individual. My college classes usually started at 8 AM. I also generally found those 8 AM classes to be the most engaging of the day. Perhaps they had more serious students in them. Most of my jobs have started at 7:30 AM (which meant showing up even earlier). Consequently, getting up at 6 has

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