I graduated in the late 90's and this was an issue then as well...parents will always bring it up and complain, however, a good solution has never been found to deal with the bus issues, sport practices, enough time after school to meet with teachers for extra help, after school jobs, etc. Also, many high school kids are in charge of younger siblings after school so they must get out of school first.

It will probably never pass and I don't want to get in to a debate about it but I do think it would be a good thing if they could start at 8am. I have read the data ( in popular magazines - not peer reviewed journals) and it does seem as if most agree that teens need more sleep. And, it is not a simple as just telling them to go to bed earlier. I also don't get the " it impacts extracurriculars, sports, argument" people. I started school at 8 or 8:30 and we did lots of things. Also, a lot of kids do club sports as it is hard to make the HS teams and they certainly go to baseball, soccer, and basketball practice at 6, 7, 8. I just think people don't like change and it is expensive.

Adopt a resolution on the goal of the Fairfax County School Board to start high schools after 8 a.m. (SB; presented as new business 3/29/12)

Motion by Sandra S Evans, second by Daniel G Storck.
Final Resolution: Motion Carries
Yes: Ryan McElveen, Tamara D Kaufax, Elizabeth Schultz, Daniel G Storck, Jane K Strauss - Chairman, Ilryong Moon - Vice Chairman, Sandra S Evans, Patricia Hynes, Megan McLaughlin, Patricia S Reed
No: Kathy L Smith, Theodore Velkoff

The resolution would make it a goal, but would also direct the FCPS staff to look at other districts (like Loudoun and others) to see how they manage this, how they made the transition, and what other things need to be considered. When the district presented this back in 2009 it was a very skewed discussion. Many other large districts around the country do this and do it well, so there's no reason at all to have early start times for high schools, nor have ES kids starting at 9:20, which requires both before and after school child care. Ugh.

The comments to this article are interesting.

Board to Revisit Later School Start Times
With six new members, Fairfax County board explores time shift for system schedule

http://fairfaxstation.patch.com/articles/board-to-revisit-later-school-start-times

I heard the very early wake ups for high school are a busing issue for several high schools only. Not sure if this is due to gerrymandered boundaries or not. They should just take care of the busing and people won't complain as much about the start times.

Maybe the kids there don't have as many sports-fanatic parents and believe that general health and academics take priority.

How does Loudoun County manage this so well? Do they simply have more buses/drivers?

Maybe they should just pony up the $$$ to double the school bus fleet and hire more drivers so that ALL kids (elem, middle, and high) can start at a reasonable hour.

Oh wait.

They tried this a couple years ago, and the proposed schedules had elementary school kids starting as early as 7am (which would be a nightmare for most ES kids as they still need 11+ hours of sleep a night)

There were too many issues created by the later start times and the entire plan was abandoned.

If the high school kids are in school until 3:30 or 4pm, it has a severe impact on practice schedules for high school sports as well as the possibility of after school jobs (which many families in the county rely on).

I see on BoardDocs that there is a resolution to be offered tomorrow (4/12) night for a goal for middle and high schools to start after 8 a.m.

http://www.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=8T3CVB32C9C8

Does anyone know if this resolution (which is simply a goal, and there will be budget implications I am sure, which means it probably won't happen any time soon) has any chance of passing?