A popular opinion among students and staff is to start the school day later. This could have many benefits including improved academic performance, decreased tardiness and better physical and mental health.
Teachers always wonder why their students are falling asleep in class, and most of the time it’s because they aren’t getting enough sleep at night. This problem is due to the time students have to wake up in the morning to get prepared for school. Many people will say that they can just go to sleep earlier, but most students are involved in extracurricular activities that make them unable to go to sleep until later in the evening. So if students are given at least another hour to sleep, they will be more engaged in class, which will result in improved academic performance.
Another benefit of starting the school day later is decreased tardiness. Since the school start time is so early in the morning, students are usually tardy to their first class. According to several school surveys, 11.6% of students were late to one to three days of school per week. This percentage is too high and needs to be lowered if schools want quality academic time. The study by the American Psychological Association found that the rate of unexcused tardies decreased by 20% in the year after a high school delayed their start times. For this reason, schools should start the school day later so they can have fewer students be tardy.
In addition, a delayed school start time can result in better student mental health. Waking up so early to get ready in the mornings can make students have a bad start to their day. This bad start can put them in a negative mood, and this can turn into an every day thing. According to the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, “For each additional hour of sleep reported, there was a 28% reduction in students reduction in students who said they felt unhappy, sad or depressed.” This is another reason why schools should delay their start times.
Although after school activities may need rescheduling, student well-being and academic success should take precedence over extracurricular convenience, especially when studies show sleep-deprived teens have higher rates of depression and accidents.
The school day should start later because it can improve academic performance, decrease tardiness and better physical and mental health.