Teens aren't morning people

COEUR d’ALENE — Discussions about first-period bell times at high schools appear to be on the horizon in Coeur d’Alene.

For the past several months, Coeur d’Alene Education Association president and Coeur d’Alene High School teacher Bruce Twitchell has used his speaking time at school board meetings to petition board members to consider a later start to the school day for the district’s high school students.

“If we wait until we’re not busy to discuss this, we’ll never discuss it,” he said.

Classes at Coeur d’Alene High School begin for some students — chamber singers and jazz band — as early as 6:40 a.m. four days a week. For most CHS students, first period begins at 8:35 a.m. on Mondays and an hour earlier the rest of the week. Over at Lake City High, classes begin at 8:40 a.m. on Mondays and 7:40 a.m. Tuesdays through Fridays.

“The research shows that the later the start time, the larger the positive effects. High schools that push back start times to 9 o’clock experience the most significant positive changes,” said Dr. Sara Morrow, to school board members at their Jan. 7 meeting.

Morrow, a local child psychologist who has joined Twitchell in the campaign for later high school starting times, said 16 groups such as the American Psychological Association, American Medical Association, and the Centers for Disease Control recommend school districts to start their high school instructional days no earlier than 8:30 a.m. Zero groups recommended starting before that time, she said.

Starting school before 8:30 a.m. causes many teens to become chronically sleep-deprived, Morrow said.

During adolescence, sleep patterns shift later in the day by about two hours, she explained. Melatonin isn’t produced until later in the night, and then keeps the brain in sleep mode until about 8 a.m. That’s why most teens can’t fall asleep until around 11 p.m. and seem so sleepy in the mornings, she said.

“This means that teens are on the roads in the morning, and sitting in the classroom, without a fully functioning brain,” Morrow said. “When teens get a bit more sleep, we see significant improvements in mental health, physical health, academic success, and overall well-being.”

Good behaviors such as high test scores and college attendance go up when teens get more sleep, she said. Bad behaviors such as delinquency, depression, and risk for suicide go down.

“We simply know too much to continue to educate our local youth on a schedule that is harmful, causes suffering, and puts them at risk,” said Morrow.

Twitchell said it’s clear that starting high school at 7:30 a.m. is not in the students’ best interests.

More than 1,000 school districts in 44 states have moved their high school instructional times to later in the day, Morrow said.

“School districts that have studied this and moved to a later start time have seen that students do use the extra time to get more sleep and it benefits the students. The fact that teenagers stay up later and need to get extra sleep in the morning is not a fact of them being lazy, but biology,” said Twitchell.

During the school board meeting, Superintendent Steve Cook said that’s a subject worthy of bringing to the community. He pointed out that while much data supports the idea, there are tradeoffs. As a result, some school districts have opted not to make the change, while others have adopted it.

“It’s an easy conversation to have, but it brings up important points to people on both sides of the discussion,” Cook said.

He told board members they should commit no less than nine months to that discussion before making any changes. Board chairman Casey Morrisroe and other school trustees on the five-member board supported putting the subject on the board agenda in a future meeting.

One of the tradeoffs Cook mentioned was the impact on younger students. Currently the school district transports high schoolers to school each morning, then does the same for younger students. In the afternoon, the process repeats. To implement a later high school start time, Cook said the school district would have to either spend much more on transportation and have one start time for everybody, or flip start times so younger students would go to school earlier in the day and go home earlier in the day.

However, he observed, while the first option would create more costs for the district — and exacerbate a school bus driver shortage — the second option would result in 5- and- 6-year olds standing at bus stops very early in the morning, and requiring more day care each afternoon.

Kate Orozco, director of elementary education for the district, said she received feedback from elementary teachers and administrators on the idea of moving elementary start times earlier in the day.

Starting around 7:30 a.m. would mean a 6 a.m. wake-up call for elementary students, which is “quite an adjustment,” she said.

Lake City High School assistant principal Jim Winger said the idea of moving high school start times was floated years ago, and one of the biggest concerns was elementary students waiting for buses and walking to school in the dark in the winter.

Orozco noted there are some positive reasons for younger children to start school earlier in the day. Because afternoons are a difficult learning time for young children, starting earlier in the day would benefit them in the same way a later schedule would benefit teens, she said. Also, it might mean fewer children having to fend for themselves in the morning because their parents would likely still be getting ready for work, she said. She noted that there are more after-school programs available for kids than before-school programs.

“We must make necessary schedule changes in order to address the sleep needs of adolescents as well as the best learning times for young children, regardless of the inconveniences it might mean for adults,” said Orozco.

Another big tradeoff of starting later in the day would be the impact of moving the school day’s quitting time. Winger said, years ago students were concerned the move would impact teen job schedules.

“With the late start, they felt they would be missing five or more hours a week with their jobs,” he said.

Additionally, spring sports would suffer, Winger said.

“There would be more class time missed, more than likely, as none of our spring sports fields have lights,” he said. “So games in baseball and softball for example could have issues.”

However, he said practices would not be impacted. Winger expressed confidence in the high schools’ abilities to adjust to a new schedule.

“I feel it is up to activities to adjust to the academic calendar and time schedule, and we would,” Winger said.

Bret Heller, principal at Coeur d’Alene High, said he’s talked about the issue with some of his students. Heller meets with randomly selected students for feedback at a monthly “Pizza with the Principal” event.

“I have brought the issue of changing the start time for high school to those students, and consistently they have conveyed that they don’t see it as something that is needed. Though many did agree that they are often tired and less motivated during the first class period of the day,” said Heller.

Heller noted there will be an impact on after school activities and athletics.

“We potentially have to push our start times for those activities to later in the evening,” he said. “This has a ripple effect of students involved in those activities getting home even later.”

Morrow said some districts have moved high school practices to mornings, while moving some elementary activities to after school. Each district that has made the change has chosen either to increase their transportation budgets or find efficiencies in them, she said.

In the final analysis, teachers and students have reported positive experiences with later start times, she said.

“Students have better attendance and fewer tardies, and are more alert, focused and on task because their brain is literally working better with the additional sleep. Students’ moods are more stable, behavioral, and disciplinary issues decrease, and there is often a shift in the overall sense of well-being of the student body.”

Twitchell said this is a discussion the school district needs to have.

“Every day that we don’t, it is not a benefit for the children at school,” he said.