November 19, 2015

Seattle approves sensible school start times

Huffington Post - The Seattle school board votedto delay most of its school start times past 8:30 a.m. in order to let students sleep later. The vote makes Seattle one of the largest school districts in the country to delay school starting times based on research showing that it could benefit teens' learning and health. The school board voted 6-1 to have the city's high schools start at 8:45 a.m. in the 2016-2017 school year. Most of the district's middle schools and some K-8 schools will also start at that time, while the remaining schools will either start at 7:55 a.m. or 9:35 a.m., according to The Seattle Times.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that school days begin after 8:30 a.m. to encourage teens to get between eight and a half and nine and a half hours of sleep a night. Few teens currently sleep that amount. Recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that fewer than a third of high school students sleep eight hours a night.

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