POLL: Should School Start Later In Towson?
The House of Delegates will take up House Bill 1462, which would establish a task force on school start times, later this week.
Are early school start times preventing kids from getting enough sleep?
That's the question on a lot minds as the Maryland House of Delegates prepares to take up House Bill 1462 later this week. The bill, which seeks to establish a task force to study whether or not school should start later in the day, will be up for a hearing at 1 p.m. Mar. 15 in Annapolis.
Recently, a group that supports earlier school start times posted a blog on Patch asking for experts to testify before the legislature.
Discuss school start times with your neighbors on the Towson Patch Facebook page.
The Start School Later campaign in Maryland is part of a national initiative to move school start times—according to a petition posted on their website, Maryland high schools start shortly after 7 a.m. with bus runs beginning as early as 5:45 a.m.
The group believes that such early hours are preventing students from getting the sleep they need and impacting their ability to study effectively.
Do you think that school should start later in the day? Is 7 a.m. just too early or should school start even earlier? Is the current start time just right? Answer our poll below and tell us in the comments.
M. Sullivan
9:49 am on Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Here's a thought: If the little darlings aren't getting enough sleep, maybe they should GO TO BED EARLIER! What's next, should we end school earlier too, so the kids don't get too worn out? Maybe they should get an extra hour for nap time after lunch. And people wonder why we have this generation of narcissists with no work ethic complaining that they can't find that $100K job right out of college. Sheesh!
Sailor
1:28 pm on Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Amen!!
Lily
2:01 pm on Tuesday, March 12, 2013
This isn't about not wanting to attend school If the day starts later it will end later. It's about the sleep patterns that adolescents need for brain development. http://www.sleepfoundation.org/article/sleep-topics/school-start-time-and-sleep
what they need to do is flip flop the times for high school and elemantary school because elemantary kids wake naturally at the crack of dawn and high school kids don't.
Lily
2:09 pm on Tuesday, March 12, 2013
I think the only reason the schools start times are what they are is because the county uses the same set of buses so the high school kids get picked up first, then the buses go out and pick up middle school kids, then they get the elemantary. So there are three different start times and the magnet schools have thier own start times as well. It all revolves around busing and keeping the transportation costs reasonable. But my kids are awake by 6:00am on their own every morning and they are in elemantary. I could easily have them on a bus the ealier bus. They just need to flip the two times... of course that would mean elemantary kids would get out early and more after care costs for parents.
Alene Crenson
10:37 am on Saturday, March 16, 2013
I think school should start earlier for elementary students and later for high school students.