More Schools Starting Later to Improve Teen Mental Health

Sleep experts have long advocated later school start times to help teens get the critical rest their bodies need, but starting school later is gaining popularity as a way to address the teen mental health crisis, AP News reports.

At Upper Darby High School in Drexell Hill, PA, school start time has shifted from 7:30 a.m. to 9:45 a.m. One of the school’s stated goals was to ease the strains on students that the COVID-19 pandemic exposed.

By all accounts, it’s working.

“I’ll be honest, I’ve been much happier in the mornings,” said senior Khalid Doulat. “I’ve been more positive, and I’ve come to school smiling more rather than, you know, grudging out of bed and stuff like that at 7:30.”

At Upper Darby High School, administrators had to get creative to make the change.

While the school day technically starts at 7:30 a.m., students are assigned coursework to be done remotely to be completed at the time that works best for them. During the early morning hours, they can finish other homework, meet with teachers during office hours, or simply sleep in.

The change has been working on a number of levels. Principal Matthew Alloway says fewer students have been falling asleep in class. Administrators have more time to find substitutes if teachers call in sick.

Most importantly, students are finding greater work-life balance.

“I think getting more sleep is definitely helping,” said junior Elise Olmstead. Before the later school start change, “I would be more irritable throughout the day, especially later, because I have a lot of after-school things. I would just have a harder time getting through the day.”

As freshman Fatima Afrani notes, “Last year I just had to get my homework done because there wasn’t an option of being able to do it later.” Now, with the change, if she was exhausted at night, “I could listen to my body and just let myself sleep.”

Read the full article here.

Schultz, Brooke. “To improve kids’ mental health, some schools start later.” AP News, 8 May 2023, https://apnews.com/article/school-start-times-pandemic-be81b0f5cb2b68fad3ce0a22dfd8ac1f.

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