School Start Time Required to be Later in California by Fall 2022
In 2019, California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, placed some restrictions on what time schools start at. This bill, known as Senate Bill 328, does not allow middle schools to start before 8 am, and does not allow high schools to start before 8:30 am. Schools have until July 1, 2022 to obey and apply the new schedule.
A year prior to Newsom signing the bill, Governor Jerry Brown vetoed the bill. He stated that start times should be a local decision.
Democratic state senator Anthony J. Portantino wrote the bill stating that it is meant to reduce tardiness and improve attendance.
According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, “teenagers aged 13-18 should sleep about 8-10 hours per 24 hours.” Considering that students have school for 5 days a week, they are simply not getting enough sleep to sustain themselves. Since students are not getting enough sleep, their brains are not at their full potential or fully functioning ability.
More research concludes that academic grades, dropout rates, and depression would also be affected by later start times. All of these factors are related to sleep deprivation in teenagers.
The exceptions to this rule are zero period classes. Since zero period classes are optional and not required, these classes may begin before 8 or 8:30 depending on the grade level. Rural districts are also excluded because of bus schedules.
Although the later start times have their positive effects, it also has its drawbacks.
The California School Boards Association explained that the bill “fails to respect parental decisions or consider the needs of local communities.” School days would end at around 3 p.m. in order to meet the legal obligations for how long a school day must be.
Parents would have to adjust their schedules in order to be able to take their children to school, and take them home at the end of the day. Adjustable schedules are typically available for white collar jobs, meaning that students and parents in low income areas are going to be negatively affected far more.
If people are unable to adjust their schedules, they most likely will need to hire child care sitters. Many people are not able to afford a sitter.
Additionally, the schedules for sports would be pushed back. Therefore students would ultimately not be able to get the extra sleep that the later school schedule wanted to provide.
Furthermore since the amount of homework students receive will not be lowered, students will simply stay up later completing assignments.
Many school districts, like Capistrano Unified School District (CAPOUSD), have decided to wait until the deadline to implement this change, and will be making an adjustment to the schedule for the 2022-2023 school year. Currently, schools within CAPOUSD are planning to shift back the schedule by a half hour, so that school will start at 8:30 and end at 3:15.
Mia Roman is a senior at Aliso Niguel High School. This is Mia's third year on the Newspaper Staff. In her spare time, Mia enjoys listening to music and...
Puzzled B • Sep 7, 2022 at 1:20 pm
Please help me understand.
Our school (SoCal) starts at 7:20 am (0 periods) and ends at 3:26 pm. All are considered instructional classes/minutes, with AP and Honor classes. Please help me understand how those kids can get 10 hours of sleep; not even 8 hours is possible. No matter how we tried to shuffle, we were, at best, ending with 6 hours of sleep. Can we have a life beyond school, like sports or any other extracurricular activities, volunteering, anything???
Is this legal? Who came up with this program, a mathematician or psychologist or maybe even a politician?
Any input or advice on how to approach it? This long-term could be a big problem.
George • Aug 15, 2022 at 8:24 pm
Currently my school which is in California still starts at 7:15. Is there a specific reason to this?
Anne Coackley • Jul 1, 2022 at 9:40 am
Does this apply to Private Schools too?
Jennifer • May 25, 2022 at 5:18 am
The fact that there is negativity around this is so silly. Most every other state has later start times and lets students out of school later. I was appalled at how early school starts in CA. The younger grades (k-2) also need more sleep. If this is a statewide change, then employers and everyone can adjust together. It’s not like it’s an isolated thing happening in pockets. I think they should go even further, 9AM start times, and start school after Labor Day.
Melissa • Apr 13, 2022 at 9:22 pm
Will this appky to elementary schools too? Doesn’t say it will just asking. I need sleep too!
Antonia Velasquez • Apr 14, 2022 at 7:02 am
No it will not!
Abel • Mar 10, 2022 at 9:42 am
If sleep times are the issue, as according to this article, then parents should flip the breaker in the kid’s rooms and ask their ISP about adding a disable of function on their Minors’ devices after 8pm. This would ensure they litterally cannot be on their anything after such, and get the benefit of 9-10 hours sleep when they have to get up at 6am.
This isn’t a school needs to start later issue, it’s a parental issue.
Brandon Beal • Mar 30, 2022 at 8:30 am
A teenagers biological clock makes them go to bed later(11 PM) and wake up later (8 AM) so that will not fix the problem I know if I tried that when I was a teenager I would be laying in bed for hours doing nothing. The solution is to have the start times later and california is doing the right thing here. Even if you get the proper amount of sleep you can still feel tired because it is simply not natural for them to be up that early
Just Maybe • Jul 26, 2022 at 10:02 am
Not all teenagers are the same. We have 2 teenagers and one elementary kid at home. None of the kids can seem to go sleep early. Like Brandon said about himself: they just “lay in bed doing nothing”. But 1 out of 2 likes/prefers to get up early to go to school the other 2 struggle. …. I believe Jerry Brown was correct when he stated “start times should be a local decision”. In our area we had 2 different start times which worked for both the kids and parents. All schools starting at the same time is not going to eliminate tardiness: with traffic jams it’s going to create either more and/or more chaos. …. I’ve know of kids that stay up late gaming or whatever, that do very well in school (I’m talking 4.0 gpa and honors) but go to prestige schools. ………… So MAYBE just maybe it may be the way schools are teaching curriculum that is causing dropout rates, depression and grades to drop. … For one we struggled when math was switched to common core math. It was not the best of times. Now I felt as though i was having to go to school to learn it as well…. SO MANY FACTORS INTO PLAY
Ben • Mar 7, 2022 at 5:02 pm
I just want to say that the reporting in this article is way more informative and concise than most professional articles I’ve read on the subject. It had the details I needed to understand this topic. Well done!
Jane Rich • Jan 2, 2022 at 8:58 am
This is not about the needs of the parents. This is about what their children need in order to succeed, like providing nutritious meals they can’t or won’t.
Maybe the first place to statr is with businesses who are not family friendly and the way they schedule people to work. This is not just a new year, this is a new way going forward.
I would happily stop giving my custom to businesses who are unwilling to adapt to the way things are going to work in the future, especially when it comes to kids. Families FIRST. has to be our motto.
nah • Feb 4, 2022 at 7:41 am
“Families FIRST” is not what you implied in your first sentence, lady. It’s not that easy for parents to change their schedules. I worked for the county and they only care about the people applying for benefits. It’s an amazing job with amazing benefits, much better than other jobs pay, but they won’t accommodate. They can’t accommodate over 100,000 employees.
Ornelas Kevin • Mar 2, 2022 at 10:12 pm
Maybe kids need to get to be earlier then. Stay off their damn phones till 10 or 11 at night. You’re the parent. Take them away at a certain time. Stop conforming to what they want. Be a parent. I should tell my state job I can’t come in till 9 or 10 because I’m more alert and can work better. Parents who think this is good is part of the problem. Babying their kids instead of showing them how to be responsible.
Jas • Mar 24, 2022 at 9:05 pm
Teenagers circadian rythm differs from an adult’s. They need to get around 8 to 10 hours of sleep in order to heighten performance. Meeting a child’s needs is not “babying” them. Making go to bed earlier will do nothing, they will just lie in bed until that natural rythm kicks in. The problem isn’t the other parents, it’s the oblivious people like you.
Gw • Apr 3, 2022 at 6:44 pm
Why don’t parents be the adult and make the “child” go to bed before 11pm at night? Growing up going to school in the 70s and 80s we started school at 7-7:30, but our parents also made us go to bed at an hour that would allow us to get 8+hrs of sleep. It comes down to be the adult!!
Mel • Jul 19, 2022 at 11:03 pm
Parents need to be parents! Put your child on a routine where they go to bed at a certain time and get up at a certain time. We all did this growing up. Nowadays, too many parents are not being parents and letting their kids rule and do whatever they want to do. As a result, our society is rapidly going downhill. Schools cannot take the place of a parent. It’s absolutely ridiculous .
terry • Apr 22, 2022 at 11:14 am
What the high schoolers will do is stay up later, playing games, texting etc. This will change NOTHING. Do you think that their employers are going to change their start times to accommodate them at work because they need more sleep. Probably not.
Who knew • Jul 26, 2022 at 9:32 am
I don’t think you know or realize that people who work in agriculture (picking the very vegetables both you and I eat) are not able to start at a later time and/or change their work schedule to accommodate their personal lives. These people have to start work at the crack of dawn to make sure they are done harvesting by a certain time. For most of these people this is the only job they are able to obtain. And most daycare centers and or babysitters do not take kids to school.