Parents of students in Fairfax County Public schools have pushed for later high school start times for well over a decade. High schools in Fairfax begin very early, 7:30 am, which runs counter to adolescents’ biological clock. [read_more] From an email message sent yesterday to FCPS parents,
In August, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a policy statement that recommended later start times so that school schedules would be aligned with the biological sleep rhythms of adolescents. Other research indicates sleep-deprived students have shortened attention spans, slower reaction time, lower test scores, poorer grades, increased rates of depression, and higher risk of car crashes.
Unlike Loudoun County Public Schools which figured out how to schedule later start times for high schools decades ago, Fairfax County Public Schools has never been able to plan such a schedule. On Thursday the Fairfax School Board voted to change high school start times to 8:00 or 8:10 am, 30 minutes later than the current start time. Big deal. In Loudoun high schools begin at the much more reasonable time of 9:00 am.
Middle school students in Fairfax will still begin school at 7:30 am. Elementary school start times are unlikely to change by more than 10 or 15 minutes. More from the FCPS email,
The School Board’s approval of the new start times schedule for the 2015-16 school year will allow families and employees almost a full calendar year to adjust to the change.“We believe it is best to give our families and employees plenty of time to adjust to a change of this magnitude,” said Superintendent Karen Garza. “Between now and next September, we will work with intention to finalize bell schedules and to make needed adjustments to ensure that this is a smooth transition for our stakeholders and our community.”The change will require the addition of 27 buses at a cost of $4.9 million.
Seriously? A small 30 minute start time change requires “a full calendar year to adjust to the change”? It took them decades to make this minor change and another year to adjust to it. Imagine if they had done something as dramatic as starting high schools at the very reasonable time of 9:00 am, as does much of the nation. They would probably need five years to adjust!
