Howard and Anne Arundel delays high school start time to healthier times. Will MCPS follow?

[Anonymous]

My kids sleep 11–12 hours K-4th grade. Moving them to the early slot is ridiculous. They also need to offer free daycare after school. Many high schoolers watch their younger siblings until a parent gets home.

My first bell was 7:01am and it was fine. Came home and napped the days I didn’t have EC’s. I also didn’t have screens to stare at or took 439 AP’s that leave me with 3 hours of homework a night.

[Anonymous]

Make all schools start later. In DC, it is 8:35 am or so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids sleep 11–12 hours K-4th grade. Moving them to the early slot is ridiculous. They also need to offer free daycare after school. Many high schoolers watch their younger siblings until a parent gets home.

My first bell was 7:01am and it was fine. Came home and napped the days I didn’t have EC’s. I also didn’t have screens to stare at or took 439 AP’s that leave me with 3 hours of homework a night.

I'm sure when you went to college it was also much easier to get in.

Things have changed, a lot. When your kids hit HS, they will also stare at screens a lot.

My kids are in HS. They go to bed at a reasonable time. Always have. My 14 yr old goes to bed at 9:30. When they get to HS, they are going to be looking at their phone a lot more.

[Anonymous]

Why can't the high school kids (and middle school kids for that matter) take public transportation instead of school buses?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:8 and 8:30 am. I know MCPS delayed to 7:45 several years ago. But is that enough?

They already went over this and the problem is that changing high school times would negatively impact elementary and middle school times

Blah blah blah.I spent years and years waiting for elementary school to start at 9:25. My kids would get up at 6:30 and there almost 3 hours til school started. Send those kids to school earlier!

Sure, you say that. I'm in Loudoun and our elementary school runs 7:10-2:10. 2:10 is so ridiculously early that few parents can work and not have to pay for aftercare. 2:10 is middle of the day.

Imagine parents having to pay for childcare!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Make all schools start later. In DC, it is 8:35 am or so.

That would be earlier for ES.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:8 and 8:30 am. I know MCPS delayed to 7:45 several years ago. But is that enough?

They already went over this and the problem is that changing high school times would negatively impact elementary and middle school times

Blah blah blah.I spent years and years waiting for elementary school to start at 9:25. My kids would get up at 6:30 and there almost 3 hours til school started. Send those kids to school earlier!

Sure, you say that. I'm in Loudoun and our elementary school runs 7:10-2:10. 2:10 is so ridiculously early that few parents can work and not have to pay for aftercare. 2:10 is middle of the day.

Imagine parents having to pay for childcare!

but it would be more convenient for some HS parents so we should do it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why can't the high school kids (and middle school kids for that matter) take public transportation instead of school buses?

That's a really interesting question! Assuming you'd need more buses, routes there too but still interesting. That's what the kids in DC do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids sleep 11–12 hours K-4th grade. Moving them to the early slot is ridiculous. They also need to offer free daycare after school. Many high schoolers watch their younger siblings until a parent gets home.

My first bell was 7:01am and it was fine. Came home and napped the days I didn’t have EC’s. I also didn’t have screens to stare at or took 439 AP’s that leave me with 3 hours of homework a night.

I'm sure when you went to college it was also much easier to get in.

Things have changed, a lot. When your kids hit HS, they will also stare at screens a lot.

My kids are in HS. They go to bed at a reasonable time. Always have. My 14 yr old goes to bed at 9:30. When they get to HS, they are going to be looking at their phone a lot more.

I wouldn't really say it was much easier back then. Back then only 1 kid had a 4.0 out a class of 500+, and less than 5% even had an A average. Today half my kid's class has a 4.0 which is partly why it's so much harder to get into a top school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:8 and 8:30 am. I know MCPS delayed to 7:45 several years ago. But is that enough?

They already went over this and the problem is that changing high school times would negatively impact elementary and middle school times

Blah blah blah.I spent years and years waiting for elementary school to start at 9:25. My kids would get up at 6:30 and there almost 3 hours til school started. Send those kids to school earlier!

Seriously. If they are concerned about health, the High School and elementary school start times should be flipped.

My kid has sports directly after school. They wouldn't get to do their sports which would even more directly impact their health. Kids work, have activities, sports, which make it much harder to get out later. Plus, the bus issue.

Yes, and in AACPS kids still do sports directly after school. Why do you think sports would be cancelled if school started an hour later?

Their teams suck though! Probably because practices are shorter. DOn't shortchange kids sports, it's important because PE is a joke!

Kids do outside sports. Wasn't talking about MCPS sports.

Yeah our travel soccer would be severely impacted if school went later. I know families in Howard county that had to drop out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm in AACPS. Literally every concern/issue/complaint in this thread about why it "can't" happen in MoCo was raised in AACPS as well.

The busses did, indeed, end up being a bit of a fiasco this year, but it sounds like that's been an across-the-board issue with the lack of bus drivers, just slightly exacerbated by the new start times.

The rest of the issue work themselves out.
Sure, some families relied on the high school kids to pick up the elementary school kids, and so now they need after care. But you also had a bunch of families who no longer need morning care, because their high school kid can get the elem kid to school, or the parents can now take them on their way to work. And of course After care for elem kids shifted their times.

Extra curriculars shifted their times - some are now before school and some are just a little later.

It's too soon to see if it makes any direct difference in student achievement, but after a TON of hand wringing over the last year and a half, people have now basically adjusted and everything is fine - and the teenagers are getting more sleep.

Why would people think teenagers need more sleep than ES kids?

The science is clear that the natural circadian rhythm for teens is later than for ES kids or adults.

Here's just one:

"Early start time was associated with significant sleep deprivation and daytime sleepiness. The occurrence of REM sleep on MSLT indicates that clinicians should exercise caution in interpreting MSLT REM sleep in adolescents evaluated on their “usual” schedules. Psychosocial influences and changes in bioregulatory systems controlling sleep may limit teenagers' capacities to make adequate adjustments to an early school schedule."
https://academic.oup.com/sleep/article/21/8/871/2726004

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:8 and 8:30 am. I know MCPS delayed to 7:45 several years ago. But is that enough?

They already went over this and the problem is that changing high school times would negatively impact elementary and middle school times

Blah blah blah.I spent years and years waiting for elementary school to start at 9:25. My kids would get up at 6:30 and there almost 3 hours til school started. Send those kids to school earlier!

No.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:8 and 8:30 am. I know MCPS delayed to 7:45 several years ago. But is that enough?

They already went over this and the problem is that changing high school times would negatively impact elementary and middle school times

Blah blah blah.I spent years and years waiting for elementary school to start at 9:25. My kids would get up at 6:30 and there almost 3 hours til school started. Send those kids to school earlier!

Seriously. If they are concerned about health, the High School and elementary school start times should be flipped.

-2 throwing younger kids under the bus for your convenience doesn't make sense

Mmkay. It’s not changing. I’m sure you’ll find a way to cope.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm in AACPS. Literally every concern/issue/complaint in this thread about why it "can't" happen in MoCo was raised in AACPS as well.

The busses did, indeed, end up being a bit of a fiasco this year, but it sounds like that's been an across-the-board issue with the lack of bus drivers, just slightly exacerbated by the new start times.

The rest of the issue work themselves out.
Sure, some families relied on the high school kids to pick up the elementary school kids, and so now they need after care. But you also had a bunch of families who no longer need morning care, because their high school kid can get the elem kid to school, or the parents can now take them on their way to work. And of course After care for elem kids shifted their times.

Extra curriculars shifted their times - some are now before school and some are just a little later.

It's too soon to see if it makes any direct difference in student achievement, but after a TON of hand wringing over the last year and a half, people have now basically adjusted and everything is fine - and the teenagers are getting more sleep.

Why would people think teenagers need more sleep than ES kids?

The science is clear that the natural circadian rhythm for teens is later than for ES kids or adults.

Here's just one:

"Early start time was associated with significant sleep deprivation and daytime sleepiness. The occurrence of REM sleep on MSLT indicates that clinicians should exercise caution in interpreting MSLT REM sleep in adolescents evaluated on their “usual” schedules. Psychosocial influences and changes in bioregulatory systems controlling sleep may limit teenagers' capacities to make adequate adjustments to an early school schedule."
https://academic.oup.com/sleep/article/21/8/871/2726004

But HS need 8-9 hours

A kindergarten kid needs 11 hours

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why can't the high school kids (and middle school kids for that matter) take public transportation instead of school buses?

Because not everywhere has it. We don’t.