Health & Fitness : Pediatricians say teens starting school before 8:30am is a public health issue

Pediatricians say teens starting school before 8:30am is a public health issue

A landmark California law requiring high schools to start at 8:30am or later is jump-starting similar efforts nationwide after years of intense debate over schools' starting bells.

Pediatricians say teens need 8.5 to 9.5 hours of sleep a night, and that starting school before 8:30am is a public health issue.

Opponents say school schedules should be decided locally — not by the state — and that a web of considerations, from transportation to after-school sports schedules, favor earlier starts.

California’s law — which also sets 8am as the earliest that middle schools can start, and has an exception for rural districts — will affect the state’s three million middle and high school students, who previously had an average start time of 8:07. It has also helped spawn similar legislation in New York and New Jersey.

New York’s bill would go further than California’s, requiring all public schools to start at 830am or later.

New Jersey’s bill would set rules similar to California’s, starting in 2024.

Massachusetts, Texas, and the U.S. Virgin Islands also have related bills in the works, according to Start School Later, a nonprofit that monitors the movement.

California's law is "game-changing and empowering," and getting it signed was "no mean feat," said Terra Ziporyn Snider, co-founder and executive director of Start School Later.

Re: Pediatricians say teens starting school before 8:30am is a public health iss

School starts at 9am and finishes at 3 or 3.30pm in New Zealand. It's always been like that.

Re: Pediatricians say teens starting school before 8:30am is a public health iss

But… can't these California kids just go to bed at an earlier time?

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Re: Pediatricians say teens starting school before 8:30am is a public health iss

What /. said.

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