Later High School Start Times a Challenge for Districts

It's no surprise to parents that most teens do not get enough sleep and often start first period cranky.

The start time of many high schools in the U.S. does not help. Many teens start learning before daylight breaks -- about 40 percent of high schools start school before 8 a.m., according to data from the 2011-2012 school year from the National Center for Education Statistics.

Lack of adequate rest not only affects teens' moods, but their ability to learn, listen and concentrate, experts say.

But starting school later is associated with better academic performance, according to a a February report by the University of Minnesota. Researchers studied data from the more than 9,000 students at eight public high schools before and after the schools made a shift to start classes at 8 a.m. or later.

Academic performance and attendance improved, and tardiness rates declined in schools with start times of 8:35 a.m. or later. The number of car crashes involving teen drivers went down too in a school which shifted its start time from 7:35 to 8:55 a.m. More than half of teens in the study who attended a school with a start time of 8:30 a.m. or later were able to get at least eight hours of sleep per night.

[Find out more about how more rest can help teens stay alert in class.]

While the evidence may support a movement to start high school later, adjusting school schedules can be a logistical nightmare for administrators. Schools have to consider factors such as students who work or take care of younger siblings, athletics and after-school activities.

The biggest challenge for administrators? Transportation, school officials say. Many school districts use the same buses to transport elementary, middle and high school students. A change in start time at the high school level thus usually means a change in start time at elementary and middle schools, too.

Academy School District 20 in Colorado Springs, Colo., was able to push back high school start times by transporting middle and high school students together on the same buses, says Superintendent Mark Hatchell. They also eliminated bus routes with few students, which also saved the district money.

"If you start too late, by the time your buses circle back and drop off middle school and elementary, then you are finishing in the dark, at least for us in the winter time," he says.

Classes at high schools in Academy School District 20 now begin at 7:45 a.m., versus 7:05 a.m., before the 2012 change. Hatchell says the later start time did not affect athletics or after-school activities.

"We've seen less tardies and, this is anecdotal, but happier students," he says.

[Get tips on how to teach healthy study habits to teens.]

Having students from the elementary, middle or high schools ride buses together was not a viable option for Ann Arbor Public Schools. The district conducted a study in 2012 to determine the costs and benefits of pushing back high school start times.

"I'm not saying it couldn't be done, but it would be a cultural shift of how we provide service here," says Liz Margolis, executive director of communications and community relations for the Michigan school district.

In order to push back high school start times, the elementary and high school schedules in Ann Arbor would have to be flipped. The idea received an overwhelmingly negative response from elementary school parents, Margolis says.

"A change to the elementary school start time, we really found, would disrupt the families' schedules," she says.

The district was also concerned about how the change would affect high school after-school activities, athletics and students who work after school.

Officials in Ann Arbor did find research that indicated some benefits related to academic performance and later high school start times, but ultimately believed the challenges would be too great to make a change.

For now, the first bell will still ring between 7:30 and 8:08 a.m. in Ann Arbor high schools.

A change in high school start times should be a community-by-community decision, Margolis says.

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Alexandra Pannoni is an education intern at U.S. News. You can follow her on Twitter or email her at apannoni@usnews.com.