Failing School Start Time

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Pages: 3

Imagine waking up at 8:30, an hour later than you are used to, and starting school at nine o’clock. That would be nice, wouldn’t it? This has been what parents and school officials wanted for their students. Parents worry that a child has not been getting enough sleep and school officials worry that the students aren’t paying attention and not learning anything. A student not getting enough sleep gives them many problems, academically and physically.

A student can’t focus academically because they are too drowsy and sleepy, and aren’t enthusiastic to learn. Physically, a student is too tired to do any physical activities like running, and can’t get a good grade in P.E. and that drops their G.P.A. As Nancy Kalish writes in article #1, The Early Bird gets the Bad Grade, “In 2002, high schools in Jessamine County in Kentucky pushed back the first bell to 8:40 a.m., from 7:30 a.m. Attendance immediately went up, as did scores on standardized tests, which have continued to rise each year.” If more high schools in the US push back
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Some pupils get to school by their parents driving them, and some take the bus to school. Changing the school start time for students would change the schedules of their parents. If the parents can’t change their schedules then what mode of transportation would their children get to go to school? According to ellenam112 of Teen Ink, “ This would leave a large percentage of students virtually unaffected by the later times because they would still be reliant on transportation only available to them early in the morning.” The school would have to also pay more money to put up lights and have staff at school earlier to supervise the students. That means less money for the student's education and more to other needs that could have been prevented by not delaying the school start time. The bus would cost more because of the later shift in the day,