Petition: Later MCPS school start times

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:THIS IS FOR SECONDARY STUDENTS ONLY.


https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/mcps-board-and-superintendent-please-wake-up-to#comments


I'm signing for my second kid. My first is in college now. He had a mental breakdown in 12th grade to which sleep deprivation contributed. Teenage brains tend to fall asleep later and wake up later. This is temporary, and it's part of their normal, healthy, development. His high school bus was at 6:30am. It was just terrible for his physical and mental health.

Haha, what a joke. What research are you basing this on? Sorry your son had issues but get your kid a healthy diet, regular exercise, take away the phone after dinner and get them to bed. Schools start early, suck it up or homeschool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Later? My kid's school doesn't start until nearly 9:30!

If we're going to push back high school, we need more buses to at least avoid needing to do two runs for elementary schools.

It is a petition for HS, but I've seen it and it does not grapple at all with any of the issues raised by the Bell Times Report. It makes a good case for the science behind teen sleep, but that doesn't answer the problems that have already been raised with making high schoolers start later. It's my opinion that MCPS won't meaningfully engage with this question until/unless someone comes up with some solutions for those barriers.

MCPS has bigger fish to fry at the moment. They should care but we all know. ES parents - yours will be in HS sooner than you know it!

I'm the PP and I think MCPS did engage on this, produced a report, and moved bell times by like 15 minutes. If parents want them to reconsider, they need to show new information. That means either new research (does not exist) or new solutions to the barriers identified in the earlier report. It's not as easy as "we want it." That's not how good policy advocacy works. You have to help the policymakers identify solutions.

[Anonymous]

Howard county moved HS start time to 8am. Wonder how they managed buses? Yes it is a smaller county and perhaps fewer magnet programs spread across the county.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Later? My kid's school doesn't start until nearly 9:30!

If we're going to push back high school, we need more buses to at least avoid needing to do two runs for elementary schools.

It is a petition for HS, but I've seen it and it does not grapple at all with any of the issues raised by the Bell Times Report. It makes a good case for the science behind teen sleep, but that doesn't answer the problems that have already been raised with making high schoolers start later. It's my opinion that MCPS won't meaningfully engage with this question until/unless someone comes up with some solutions for those barriers.

MCPS has bigger fish to fry at the moment. They should care but we all know. ES parents - yours will be in HS sooner than you know it!

I'm the PP and I think MCPS did engage on this, produced a report, and moved bell times by like 15 minutes. If parents want them to reconsider, they need to show new information. That means either new research (does not exist) or new solutions to the barriers identified in the earlier report. It's not as easy as "we want it." That's not how good policy advocacy works. You have to help the policymakers identify solutions.

Policymakers should have their research assistant doing that job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If they start taking away the buses for magnet, they can free up buses! There are non-magnet HS students getting on a school bus as early as 6:35am when their school does not start until 7:30. The HSers need their sleep!

That is not because of magnet buses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:High schoolers are only going to stay up later. They won't get any extra sleep. My high schooler already stays up so late doing homework. I can only imagine what would happen if he got home from after school activities even later than he does now because school doesn't start until later.

Correct. Which is why I think it's futile to push the start time back further. Anyone who has teenagers knows this. They will be "sleepy" no matter what. Unless you push the start time to 12 pm, which even then, they'll still doze off cause they're teenagers and they either don't get enough sleep cause of studying, being on the phone/computer all night or cause they're high.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Howard county moved HS start time to 8am. Wonder how they managed buses? Yes it is a smaller county and perhaps fewer magnet programs spread across the county.

We currently start at 7:45 am. I promise you 15 minutes is not going to dramatically improve teenagers' sleep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Howard county moved HS start time to 8am. Wonder how they managed buses? Yes it is a smaller county and perhaps fewer magnet programs spread across the county.

We currently start at 7:45 am. I promise you 15 minutes is not going to dramatically improve teenagers' sleep.

In a school year, those 15 min daily could mean 45 h of extra sleep for my teenager.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Howard county moved HS start time to 8am. Wonder how they managed buses? Yes it is a smaller county and perhaps fewer magnet programs spread across the county.

We currently start at 7:45 am. I promise you 15 minutes is not going to dramatically improve teenagers' sleep.

In a school year, those 15 min daily could mean 45 h of extra sleep for my teenager.

+Million

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So many decisions are made based on free transportation. Snow days, flooded roads, start times, end times. It’s ridiculous. We need to do away with school buses, boost the public buses and make decisions based on what’s best for our kids.

That is NEVER going to change in Montgomery County. We will never have public transport like NYC or Chicago. Sorry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Howard county moved HS start time to 8am. Wonder how they managed buses? Yes it is a smaller county and perhaps fewer magnet programs spread across the county.

They did? Did they swap start time with ES or MS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:High schoolers are only going to stay up later. They won't get any extra sleep. My high schooler already stays up so late doing homework. I can only imagine what would happen if he got home from after school activities even later than he does now because school doesn't start until later.

IMO, it's about their body clock. HSers naturally sleep later.

DC told me that most of the kids in 1st period are half asleep. Their grades suffer. DC had math first period last year. Didn't do so well. They have it now at 4th period, more advanced math class, and doing a lot better because they said their brain is awake by then.

I wonder if a lot of HSers academic performance would improve if they started later.

My spouse went to school in Europe, and they started at 9am.

If sports is the issue, they can always practice in the morning before school. Why do non athletes have to go to school early just because a small minority of kids want time after school for athletics.

Academics > sports.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:High schoolers are only going to stay up later. They won't get any extra sleep. My high schooler already stays up so late doing homework. I can only imagine what would happen if he got home from after school activities even later than he does now because school doesn't start until later.

This, everything including activities would shift later and it’s an issue for kids who work.

sleep deprivation is an issue for ALL kids.

[Anonymous]

Start a petition for more buses and bus drivers. That's the only way to get a meaningful change to start times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:High schoolers are only going to stay up later. They won't get any extra sleep. My high schooler already stays up so late doing homework. I can only imagine what would happen if he got home from after school activities even later than he does now because school doesn't start until later.

IMO, it's about their body clock. HSers naturally sleep later.

DC told me that most of the kids in 1st period are half asleep. Their grades suffer. DC had math first period last year. Didn't do so well. They have it now at 4th period, more advanced math class, and doing a lot better because they said their brain is awake by then.

I wonder if a lot of HSers academic performance would improve if they started later.

My spouse went to school in Europe, and they started at 9am.

If sports is the issue, they can always practice in the morning before school. Why do non athletes have to go to school early just because a small minority of kids want time after school for athletics.

Academics > sports.

Exactly