Waking up early can be challenging for most high school students.  I’ve noticed the majority of the students who actively participate in classes tend to be silent or uninvolved until second or third period. However, during a two-hour delay, there will be a significant difference in student participation and preparation. Starting school later is a topic that has been endorsed by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the National PTA, the National Education Association and many more research groups. Getting additional rest is an important asset to an achievement.

Frederick County Public Schools (FCPS) should strongly consider the impact of a later start time for all students. In fact, the Board of Education has been planning a pilot of a later start time.

Board of Education meeting

According to the Citizens Advisory Council, on February 28th, a motion was passed during the Board of Education meeting to further research starting high school at 9:00 a.m.

Three counties around Frederick have already implemented a later school day: Montgomery, Washington, and Howard. These counties have demonstrated improvement and their support in a later starting school day. Students and parents are supportive.

Students need more sleep!

According to the CDC, 32% of high school students in the United States are not getting an appropriate amount of sleep. In a class of 30 students, 10 of those students are not getting enough sleep.

Another important factor is the negative impact of early start times can have on sleep deprivation. Not only can a lack of sleep affect grades negatively, but it could also cause irritation, impaired memory function, poor decision making, and increase stress or anxiety. According to the US Health & Human Services Department, in 2012, the average number of hours a teenager should sleep is between 9 to 10 hours per night.

Sophomore Eli Smith, said, “I rarely get a whole six hours of sleep because of homework and after-school activities.” Eli Smith is a sophomore student who strongly supports a delayed start time.

Caffeine is the new sleep

Because students are feeling decreased energy and impairments with concentration, students are seeking to rely on caffeine. Major corporations such as Red Bull aim to target teens and young adults to profit off their drinks to help with increased energy.

The University Health Services determined that caffeine consumption can result in caffeine addiction, increase heart rate, dizziness, nausea, anxiety, irritability and many more discomforting symptoms. In addition, once you start drinking coffee or energy drinks routinely, it’s a hard habit to break.

“I once tried to quit coffee a few months ago, but a few hours into the day and it felt like I had the flu”, says Adriana Brown, a junior who drinks four to five cups of coffee per day. Since Dunkin’ Donuts is an easy drive-thru nearby, many students start their day with a large iced coffee. A large iced coffee has 393 mg. of caffeine.  According to the Mayo Clinic, an adult should not exceed 400 mg. per day.

Benefit the whole school system

If FCPS started high schools at 9:15 am it would benefit the whole school system. First of all, there would be fewer two-hour delays; therefore, fewer snow days would be used. The number of accidents caused by sleepy people would decrease. Increasing school starting times would also decrease the amount of traffic there is early in the morning, giving teachers who live further away from school an easier commute.

Problems with a schedule adjustment

Some middle and high school students would ride buses together as the school system would reduce from three runs to two.  Since elementary student times would adjust, it means more burden on parents with daycare.  High school students would have athletic practices and games later, putting many more people on the road in the dark during the winter.  Montgomery County has had an ongoing debate about their later start times because the elementary school children are more tired later in the day–the reverse of the high school problem now.

Final thoughts

Evidence has proven that a starter late time has outweighed the benefits than negatives. Increased ability to concentrate, higher energy levels and additional hours of sleep have proven to support student academics. 

At the end of the day, the only thing that should matter in eyes of our next generation is education. Obviously delaying school an hour would work with students, we should be doing everything to give all students the best advantages they have. Many students like me have educational class in the morning so being sleepy could really be hurting our grades. I think pushing the starting time back would be beneficial for everyone in all FCPS schools.