Hours before he is due to enter Upper Darby High School, senior Khalid Doulat has time to pray, help his mother and get ready for track practice.
This was a welcome change for him and the thousands of students at his school, as the start time was pushed back by more than two hours from 7:30am to 9:45am. The tension among students coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic has never been more visible.
“To be honest, I was much happier in the morning,” said Doulat. “I’m more positive than I used to be. I come to school with a smile instead of being reluctant to get out of bed at 7:30.”
The idea of a later start time, promoted by many for years as a way to help adolescents get more sleep, is a mentality affecting teens across the United States. We are getting a new perspective on how to address the health crisis.
For some schools, the pandemic has allowed experiments to try out new schedules. The Upper Derby had originally considered delaying the 2019 start time.
When students first returned to in-person learning, many dealt with mental health struggles and behavioral problems, said Upper Darby Superintendent Daniel McGarry. I have seen the collapse of respected students.
“We had a lot of things we were up against and we’re still working through it. We’re in a much better place,” McGarry said. “I think our kids feel better. They say he’s not 100 percent better.”
During the pandemic, the number of high school students expressing constant sadness and hopelessness surged, with girls and LGBTQ+ youth reporting the highest rates of poor mental health and suicide attempts. It doesn’t help that research suggests middle and high school students aren’t getting enough sleep.
Orhue Buxton, director of the Sleep, Health and Social Cooperative Research at Pennsylvania State University, said: “It’s the same with decision-making, suicidal thoughts, things like that.”
The reason high schools start so early—often before 7:30 a.m.—is “buried in the sands of history,” says Buxton. Patterns, bus timetables, adult jobs.
Nationwide, at least nine states are considering school start time laws, up from four the year before, according to the National Congress of States. In her 2019, California became the first and only state to specify school start times.
Larger schools such as Denver, Philadelphia and Anchorage, Alaska are considering delaying school start times.
Creating new schedules may require innovation.
At Upper Darby High School, classes still technically start at 7:30am. Students will be assigned a remote lesson that is relevant to that day’s lesson. But you can use the early morning hours however you like. You can meet your teacher during office hours, go to bed, or finish other homework. Ultimately, they should complete their assigned tasks early in the morning, but when they do is up to the students.
“I definitely think getting more sleep helps,” says third grader Elise Olmsted. “I have so many things to do after school that I’m going to be frustrated throughout the day, especially later. It’s going to make getting through the day more difficult.”
school still finishes by 3pm
Freshman Fatima Afrani said that when she gets home, she relaxes, helps her mom and does her homework.
“I go to bed when I’m tired, but I couldn’t do it last year. Last year, I had to finish my homework because I didn’t have the option to do it later,” she said. “So when I was tired, I liked listening to my body and just being able to sleep.”
Principal Matthew Alloway said educators have noticed fewer students sleeping during class. ‘ he said. About 400 of his 4,250 students at the school attend only through virtual learning, an option offered to compete with online schools.
Critics claim that the new schedule will give students less instructional time. Although his initial 80 minutes were shortened, Alloway says lectures don’t always fill his 80 minutes.
“Sometimes I had 60 minutes of intense instructional time. But then I had time to write. I had time to read. I had time to watch videos,” he said.
Other challenges caused by the pandemic, such as teacher shortages, have also benefited from the schedule change, administrators said. A teacher can take care of herself and her family in the morning. Managers get more time to replace sick staff.
Doulat, a fourth-year student at Upper Derby, said that even if the students didn’t see the effects every day, it had a big positive impact.
“The changes in our daily lives are so small that we don’t even notice them,” he added. “But they slowly start to accumulate and we really see a difference in our own lives.”
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Brooke Schultz is a member of the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a non-profit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to cover hidden issues.
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The Associated Press education team is supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. AP is solely responsible for all content.
