Why School Should Start Later

Almost 10% of U.S. high schools start before 7:30 a.m. Over 20% of middle schools start class at 7:45 a.m. or earlier. This is leaving students everywhere overwhelmed and tired. This can lead to tremendous effects on their health and grades. Research shows that only do later start times improve those things, but ends up increasing the school's yearly income in the long run. For these reasons, schools should make their hours later because it can affect students grades and health in a positive way.

Think about this, you wake up at 8:00 am and start school at 9:00 am. Awesome right? Wrong! According to the article, “Should School Start Later,” “Not everyone is in favor of earlier start times. Many school districts say they would present big challenges.”

Teenagers need more sleep. If schools start school later, students would be less tired. A study of eight schools in Minnesota started school 1 hour later and grades and morale went up and tardiness went down. It has been scientifically proven in a test they did in Minnesota that 8 schools stated later and most of the students grades went up they were happier and everyone seemed more

Having a later school start time can increase a student’s academic grades and awareness. Thirty-three percent of teens say that they fell asleep in class. Even though this is a small portion of teens, falling asleep in class shouldn’t even happen once. Also, this means they are getting less than what they need,(eight to nine hours of sleep a night). A school needs to pack as much teaching time as they can in a day, but if that means waking up a student at a time so early, then there's no point.When a student doesn’t sleep as much, students are not aware as they would be if they had a good night’s rest. If students had this sleep, the would pay more attention in class. Therefor, a student would have better grades.

School should be started later then it is currently starting. Many kids do not get enough sleep, for various reasons. Some students try to stay up all night on their cell phones and other devices. Other’s go to bed around 9:30 to 10:30, but these students still struggle to get up. We could eliminate tired students who crawl from class to class by moving start times back by an hour or two. If schools started at a later time then students could get more sleep, they could feel more energized and ready for school, and it could help improve students grades.

Should school start later is a question asked by many, and some people believe that school is just fine starting at 8:20 and going till 3:30, but they don’t know the benefits of later start times. Schools should start later for it provides better test scores, it gives kids the rest they need and students are more capable of getting to school. When students get the sleep they need, then they have a higher chance to get better test scores. According to “Should Schools Start Later?” “Studies show that well rested teens get better grades and have higher standardized test scores.”

First of all, kids will be more energized and be more academically advanced if school starts are pushed back. According to, “Should School Start Later” “Studies show that well rested teens get better grades, have higher standardized test scores, and miss fewer days of school. They also have a lower risk of being in car accidents and have fewer health problems such as depression, mood changes, and being overweight.” Many schools start before 7:45 a.m. and have tired students not putting forth their best efforts while 40 percent of American High Schools start classes past 8 a.m. The schools with later starts

One reason should start later is it helps you get better grades and be more alert. “Schools that have pushed start times to 8am, or later have seen promising results. Students are more alert and there are fewer incidents of tardiness.”(20) says Justin O’Neill, author of “Should School Start Later?”. Also, if school started later we would get more sleep.

School should start later. Waking up at six in the morning to get ready for school really makes kids mad. They have to go through the rest of their day doing work when they feel tired and just want to go back to bed. But what if they didn’t have to wake up that early because school started later? Why do school start at 8 in the morning? All it does is make kids not want to be there. A lot of people say that school should start later. Later starting would mean that kids get enough sleep, they

Does anyone really like going to school earlier than 8:30 am? In a survey among 39,700 public schools in the United States, the average start time was 8:03 a.m. and only 17.7% of these public schools started school at 8:30 a.m. or later. Having schools start later in the day would be beneficial to both the students and staff. By this action, students can concentrate on other activities when outside of school, students can get enough rest, and teachers can have more time to make lesson plans efficiently as well as schools saving money. The first benefit of starting school later is that students can concentrate on other activities when outside of school.

To begin, starting school later can improve students’ health and safety. The CDC urges people to schools to start later, and they have solid reasons for it. Researchers from Minnesota University analyzed over 9000 high school students and discovered that altering the original start time to a later one improved attendance, test scores, grades in math, social studies, and English, and decreased tardiness, drug abuse, and depression. Sadly, over 75% of schools in over 40 states start before 8:30. Without a doubt, later start times have obvious benefits

First, schools should not start later because transportation would be an issue. Some parents may have trouble getting their kids to school because of their work schedule. For example, Liz Szabo, from USA Today, she quoted Daniel Domenech, in her article “Study: Most teens start school too early in morning to get enough sleep” states, "It's a logistical nightmare," said Daniel Domenech, executive director of AASA, the School Superintendents Association., who said that school districts have to consider the cost of school buses, as well as traffic...” This is significant because most school districts have at least one elementary school, one middle school, and one high school that would need busses to take them to and from school. Parents would not benefit if school started later because parents would now have to worry about being late to

Stated from “Later start to school day may benefit students” “…after school programs such as sport or clubs, as well as increased pressure for students to perform well academically, keep them up later than is prudent.” What this is trying to tell us is that we need to recognize that teenagers have a different biological alarm clock and we can’t run school when they are’t ready. The lack of sleep is just part of puberty. The school system just isn’t design for children and is rather a challenge for the students to keep up with! This shows how changing the starting time would help set teens closer to their biological

According to a study done in North Carolina schools that start as little as an hour later can cause standardized test scores to go up by as much as 2 percent (Educationnext.org).Two percent may not seem like a lot but it can be the difference between a C or a B on a standardized test. Earlier start times also can cause students to get less sleep which can cause students to perform worse. If students were able to get more sleep they may perform better and actually enjoy going to school and getting good grades while still getting a decent amount of sleep.

In contrast, there are no studies showing that early starts have any positive impact on sleep, health or learning.” (—Paul Kelley, Ph.D.) Source #5.” One last fact is an example of kids’ Academic success being better when school started later is sleep plays an important role in learning and memory which studies says helps academic performance. “We find that when a student is randomly assigned to a first period course starting prior to 8 a.m., they perform significantly worse in all their courses taken on that day compared to students who are not assigned to a first period course. Importantly, we find that this negative effect diminishes the later the school day begins.”