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School Start Too Early Research Paper

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The government agency associated with the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), surveyed almost forty-thousand middle and high schools around the country and found that most schools start at an unhealthy time (“School Starts Too Early, Says Government”). According to the CDC, minors need a lot of sleep, and skimping on rest is tied to health problems and dissatisfactory grades (“School Starts Too Early, Says Government). The survey they conducted showed that fewer than 1 in 5 schools start at 8:30am or later (“School Starts Too Early”). For example, a school district in Seattle decided to look at altering school start times in light of findings from the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics. They observed that too many high …show more content…

Biological shifts during the teenage years drive the need for longer sleep durations and later wake times, research shows (Blad). In Seattle, the district took action and has approved a revised schedule for schools that sets the start times for high schools and most middle schools at 8:45am (Kennedy). School should start later, but it is hard to make that happen over night. Shifting start times often causes conflicts with carefully crafted family schedules and the timing of afterschool activities and sports (Blad). Changing start times for secondary schools typically forces districts to either expand their transportation budgets to buy or lead more buses, or to also shift start times for elementary schools to make the schedules work (Blad). These are common, understandable reasons given the fact that parents are concerned about elementary school times that do not align with their work schedules and later end times for high school students, which would leave some younger siblings at home alone after they were dropped off. On the other hand, the change in times would be capable of being adjusted to and built around whereas minors suffering from sleep deprivation and health risks is not.Yet, despite the CDC’s research, five out of every six middle and high schools ring their first bell before

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