High
School Students Need More Sleep: 9 hours
Buses
begin picking up students at 5:30 a.m. to meet 7:20 start times
The
nation’s top sleep researchers say: “Changes in sleep
and circadian regulation occurring in adolescence are inconsistent
with optimal learning when morning school start times are too early
(before 8:30 or 9:00).”
Sleep is critical to learning, especially the
last REM sleep (which is cut short by early alarms).
Driving
while sleep-deprived is dangerous.
Inadequate sleep is linked with
increased depression, obesity, and diabetes.
The
School Board’s Transportation Task Force (TTF) recommended that
FCPS change bell schedules and improve system efficiency to enable
later start times for high school students. The TTF Preferred Bell
Schedule (ES/HS/MS) is:
Most
elementary schools would start 7:50-8:55; end 2:30-3:45 (Some
still after 9 am)
High
schools would start between 8:35 and 8:55; end 3:15-3:45
Middle schools would start between
9:20 and 9:40; end 4-4:30
The
TTF expects its recommendations to be cost-neutral.
No
extra buses or drivers.
2006
cost estimates for similar models range from zero to $9.2
million.
Other
schools have switched to later start times with no added costs:
Arlington, VA; Minneapolis & Edina, MN; Wilton, CT; and Brevard,
FL.; Albemarle, VA.
Reengineering will improve efficiency
and save money.
| SLEEP
endorses the TTF recommendations, which represent a compromise among
a variety of interests.
Others
that support later start times for teens
Large
majorities of parents, students and teachers, according to surveys
Fairfax
County Council of PTAs
Virginia
State PTA
Student
Advisory Committee to the Fairfax School Board
Medical
Society of Northern Virginia
League
of Women Voters of Fairfax County
National
Sleep Foundation
Top
sleep researchers in “Messages to the Public,” The
Role of Sleep on Memory and Learning Conference, Washington,
D.C., March 2008 (quoted above)
Support
healthy start times and sign our petition at
www.sleepinfairfax.org
| 
