Simon Bazelon Photo
Juniors Riley Delucia and Elina Murarka in Environmental Science class.
(Opinion) Every school day, thousands of New Haven high school students -– myself included -– head off for school in the dark. Classes at Wilbur Cross and Co-op begin at 7:30 a.m., and Hillhouse starts five minutes later.
In order to make it to school on time, students wake up well before sunrise. Among New Haven policy makers, there does not seem to be any motivation to change this situation.
This is a mistake. Strong evidence exists that early school start times are detrimental to learning: if New Haven wishes to improve the educational outcomes of its high school students, starting the school day later is an imperative.
As a junior at Wilbur Cross, I have seen firsthand the harms early start times are doing to me and my peers.
First, the evidence. According to a 2014 study in the American Academy of Pediatrics, “a substantial body of research [demonstrates] that delaying school start times is an effective countermeasure to chronic sleep loss and has a wide range of potential benefits to students with regard to physical and mental health, safety, and academic achievement.” A study of Seattle schools, which in 2016 pushed start times back from 7:50 to 8:45, found that the change significantly increased the amount of time students slept, in addition to improving test scores, grades, and attendance. Research on the effects of the Minneapolis School District’s decision to have high school begin at 8:30 instead of 7:20 found that it resulted in “fewer disciplinary incidents in the halls and lunchroom… students reported less depression… over 92% of the parents said their kids were “easier to live with.” This last data point should be especially appealing to parents – when your teenager is well rested, it makes your life better too.
Other school districts are noticing the mounting pile of evidence. In 2018, Guilford high schools decided to start later. Starting in 2021, Norwalk public high schools will begin at 8:30. In California, state lawmakers recently prohibited high schools from opening earlier than 8:30 a.m.
Early-morning bus drop-off at Cross.
New Haven has declined to make any changes, sticking to its early school openings. The Board of Alders appears to have little interest in the matter. Mayor Justin Elicker’s transition team’s report did not include any mention of changing school start times at all, and Elicker hasn’t made any public statements on the issue. (Click here to read a story about how the school board considered, then ditched, the idea in 2016.)
According to Lihame Arouna, one of the student representatives on New Haven’s Board of Education, moving start times back has not been a subbject of much discussion.
To a number of students I have spoken with, the lack of action from government officials is disappointing. ”It seems like they don’t really care about us, or about how much we sleep,” said Federico Lora, a junior at Wilbur Cross, adding that “this is an important issue to pretty much every teenager in New Haven: there should be some action.”
Other students emphasized how much they dislike current start times. “To make my bus, I have to wake up at 5:45,” Wilbur Cross senior Roger Baldwin said. “English is my first class, but like, how am I supposed to learn about literature at 7:30 a.m.? I’m not even really awake yet.”
A common sentiment was expressed by Wilbur Cross freshman Tam Trinh: “I always feel more rested when I wake up later in the day, even if I sleep the same amount. Sleeping from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. is better than sleeping from 10 to 6.”
That belief squares with scientific research on adolescent sleeping patterns, which suggest that the onset of puberty results in a shift of natural sleep cycles. Whereas younger kids naturally wake up early, teens are hardwired to stay up late at night, and wake up late in the morning.
A common argument against delaying school start times is its effect on after school sports. But for many teams, sports practice begins at 3 p.m. anyway, well after the school day has ended at around 2 p.m. For sports like basketball, volleyball, and swimming, having lights indoors means a lack of sun isn’t a problem at all. New Haven ought to prioritize the health and wellbeing of our thousands of high school students over the ability of a few sports programs to practice for an additional few minutes every day.
A second common argument in favor of keeping things the way they are is cost.
Opponents of later high school start times argue that any changes will result in increased transportation costs. Given New Haven’s fiscal straits, increased costs are certainly a concern. But a simple change could likely avoid large cost increases. Most New Haven elementary schools begin after 8:30: if the bus times for elementary and high schools are switched, a dramatic increase in bus costs seems avoidable.
Such a switch would also benefit working parents, who often struggle balancing leaving their young children home alone in the mornings with getting to work on time.
An analysis by The Hamilton Project, a D.C. based think tank, finds that later start times help cities in the long run fiscally. By raising attendance and performance, they lead to an increase in lifetime earnings for affected students, and a corresponding increase in future tax revenue.
Justin Elicker ran for mayor on a message of change, not continuity, and has made educational outcomes in our city one of his priorities. Addressing the problem of chronic sleep deprivation among New Haven high school students is a particularly promising way to improve our city’s school system, a goal local officials have struggled to achieve for decades. The mayor, along with the Board of Alders and the Board of Education, should immediately begin assessing the best way to make New Haven high schools start at a reasonable hour. The scientific evidence is strong, and is backed up by the experience of just about every high school student. Our city should join the ranks of the dozens of school districts across America that have changed when classes begin: high school needs to start later.
This budget season there have been a lot of comps. made to our (distant) neighbors in lower fairfield county. When comes to start times, you can see that changes in that region are happening. Greenwich pushes their HS time back, Westport just voted to do the same next year, as did Norwalk. New Canaan is actively exploring it. All of them have cited research and experts and discussed related issues. It's an interesting google search and subsequent read. There are models out there.