re: Study: US students start the school day way too early- does more harm than good

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stop by 5:15 to catch their bus. Which means they have to be up at 4:30 to eat and get ready.

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I live down the street from the top open admission school in New Orleans, they bus students in from the entire city.
Buses arrive at school at 7:15. Bus stop start times range from 6:15 for Westbank students and 5:30 for Eastbank. If a first grader is waking up at 4:45 to catch a bus, what shape do you think he will be in by 1pm.

I remember reading about this awhile ago. Basically elementary kids should be the ones getting to school earlier, and middle/high schoolers should start later. That is how it is in our school district. My DD is starting elementary this year and it starts at 7:50. I will probably be helping out our neighbors dropping their middle schooler DD off some mornings because their other DD will need to get to the high school across town and they both start 8:30.

I don't know if a later start time would help though because it does seem as if earlier start times are better for two working parents. When I was working full time, I had a 50 minute commute (if there were no accidents/delays) to start at 8am. Schools here allow you drop your kid off only half an hour before. I would be screwed if I couldn't drop my kid off before 8, yet that is when I had to be at work almost an hour away. Which is why I am helping out my neighbors! (We live too close to the schools to be eligible for bus transportation)

I know there have been lots of threads here bashing SAHMs who continue to stay home once their kids are in school but this is actually one of the reasons why I worked full-time while my kid was a baby and then switched to work from home/part time when school came into the equation. I didn't want the morning school/work hassle of teacher work days or bad weather days or delay start days, etc and have to figure out a way around it and still maintain my full time hours. I was was extremely lucky to be offered PT/WFH, most employees do not have that option.

Haha. Okie dokie.

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Generalize much? My kid played ball in HS and will graduate May 2016, from LSU.

With a 4.0

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That's great - a very nice achievement. I never said sports are bad. I played sports. My kids play sports. What I don't do is spend ridiculous amounts of time and money pushing them year round to play sports like I see lots of people do.

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well and I haven't read a single reply BUT if they'd go to bed and not text/talk/play online half the night, they'd be better rested.

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Its possible that all that text/talk/play happens because their bodies aren't ready for resting. I know mine wasn't at that age.

Now? Sure. But when I'm age 13-24, no. I think kids that age on average just have different sleep schedules. I'd say the talking and texting is a result of their schedules. Move it back, and get better results.

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School was always 8-3 growing up. Every age. Every school. Not sure why they had to move it up. If anything they could make it more efficient and cut down on crap classes. But that would let kids out earlier which isn't ideal for working parents and that's why schools last all day.

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The school I went to for 3rd-4th grade started at like 9:15 AM, but everything else was 7:30-7:45. I always thought 8-8:30 would at least work for me.

I really don't think it's just middle/HS either. Last year my first graders were always complaining about how tired they were.

Sure starting at 8am in our district or elem. doesn't sound so bad. However there was a before school program where you get breakfast, etc so many students arrived at like 6:30-7. Then the rest of the school tended to arrive right at 7:30 when allowed to be on campus to get their free breakfast. I don't really think kids should be waking up at 6am