By Jennifer A. Kingson, Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios, Axios, July 28, 2022
A landmark California law requiring high schools to start at 8:30am or later is jump-starting similar efforts nationwide after years of intense debate over schools' starting bells.
Why it matters: Most teens don't get enough sleep — yet school start times are a hot-button political issue that divide communities, pitting teachers, parents, bus drivers, and administrators against one another.
- Pediatricians say teens need 8.5 to 9.5 hours of sleep a night, and that starting school before 8:30am is a public health issue.
- Opponents say school schedules should be decided locally — not by the state — and that a web of considerations, from transportation to after-school sports schedules, favor earlier starts.
Driving the news: California's law — which also sets 8am as the earliest that middle schools can start, and has an exception for rural districts — will affect the state's three million middle and high school students, who previously had an average start time of 8:07. It has also helped spawn similar legislation in New York and New Jersey.
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