Davis teen students to get more sleep by starting school later [Sacbee.com]

Davis Joint Unified School District has joined a growing list of districts nationwide instituting later morning start times so that teen students can get more sleep.

Trustees on Thursday night asked the district staff to plan for school start times of about 8:30 a.m. for junior high and high school students by the 2017-18 academic year, said spokeswoman Maria Clayton. The change could give the district’s high school students up to 45 extra minutes to get ready in the morning.

The concept of letting teen students sleep longer galvanized board members after the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2014 called insufficient sleep in adolescents an important public health issue. The academy urged high schools and middle schools to aim for start times that allow students to get an optimal 8.5 to 9.5 hours of sleep each night.

Since then, an increasing number of schools around the country have taken up the cause. The board of Seattle Public Schools voted last month to move start times later for high school and many middle school students starting next fall, citing findings from groups such as the National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and National Sleep Foundation. And the website www.startschoollater.net lists a half dozen districts in California that have later schedules. Scores more districts nationally also have moved to later opening bells, according to the website.