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PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — School officials in Park City are taking steps to become the first public school district in Utah to implement a later start time for high school students.
High schools across the country are starting to shift to later start times as a growing body of evidence supports the idea that doing so is developmentally appropriate for teenagers, The Deseret News reported (http://bit.ly/2nXHhJJ ). Experts say teens' natural sleep-wake cycles involve sleeping later in the morning and that allowing them to do so can decrease disciplinary issues and improve academic performance.
The Park City school board says start times won't be changing this fall, but it has committed to studying the costs and logistical issues associated with such a change. It has set two parameters: That high school would start no earlier than 8:30 a.m. and end no later than 3:20 p.m.
The change would require the district to navigate logistical issues involving bell times, traffic on already heavily-travelled thoroughfares and changes to extracurricular activity schedules. Between buying new buses and the associated operating costs, the preliminary costs exceed $1.85 million, district business administrator Todd Hauber said.
He said the cost estimates are still being refined and added that the school board's actions have been compelled by science.
"There is strong evidence that this will make a difference in the students' lives," Hauber said. "Hopefully the empirical data will come out at some point that shows what that academic boost was."
Experts say a later start time could help other areas of teenagers' lives as well. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "insufficient sleep is common among high school students and is associated with several health risks, such as being overweight, drinking alcohol, smoking tobacco and using drugs, as well as poor academic performance."
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Information from: Deseret News, http://www.deseretnews.com
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