When Monica Chandler’s son, Mason, gets to school in the morning, it’s often still dark outside.
Typically an early riser, Mason has been struggling to wake up in the morning since he started high school at Tabb High School last fall.
“This is his first year getting up this early,” Chandler said. “In the past, it hasn’t been a problem. But we’ve seen a progression since the beginning of the year where getting him up is more and more difficult.”
After seeing her son struggle though his morning routine, Chandler is taking action.
Chandler is part of a small grassroots group of parents that have been pushing for later high school start times in York County.
The push to adjust start times has been an ongoing conversation for several years among the group of parents, resulting in petitions and dozens of public comments at York County School Board meetings.
“9 to 5 is the typical day of work, but they’re starting their day at 7:20 a.m.” Laura Emery, parent of a Queen’s Lake Middle School 8th grader, said. “These kids are out in the dark and waiting for a school bus, and they’re sleep deprived.”
A case for later start times
One York County resident has been working overtime to make sure both the community and school board know the dangers of waking up too early.
Kathy Howe, a parent who started publicly pushing for later start times in 2006, contends that starting school at 7:40 a.m. puts high schoolers at risk of injury.
“You’re putting children behind the wheel of a car when they’re half asleep,” Howe said.
According to a study published by the American Academy of Pediatrics, school start times earlier than 8:30 a.m. are a “key modifiable contributor to insufficient sleep.”
Insufficient sleep affects a variety of factors in teenagers’ lives, including mental health, safety and academic achievements, the study states.
Further, teenagers sleep the best from around 11 p.m. to about 8 a.m., according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
“There are countless studies that show how inadequate sleep for our adolescents can have a major impact on their health and safety,” Emery said.
While some concerns from parents revolve around changing the times of extracurricular activities, those scheduled activities can be adjusted so students still get home for dinner, Emery said.
Emery’s 14-year-old daughter Robyn plays field hockey and Chandler’s son is in band.
“Other schools are successfully doing later start times,” Chandler said. “A lot of objections I’ve heard are ‘If it was good enough for me when I was 15, then it’s good enough for them.’”
In 2015, Richmond City Schools changed high school start times to 8 a.m., according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Henrico County and Hanover also start at 9 a.m. and 8:30 a.m., respectively.
High schools in Chesapeake also start between 8:40 and 8:45 a.m.
“We’re sending our children to school for an education,” said Howe, whose youngest daughter participates in cross country and track. “We do not send them for sports or extracurriculars. Yes, they’re necessary, but they’re secondary to their education.”
Logistics of changing start times
Discussions among school officials and administrators have been ongoing regarding school start times for several years.
On Jan. 22, the York County School Board reviewed a timeline of previous discussions about changing start times, which date back to the 2012-2013 school year.
In November 2016, the school division also hired consultant MidAmr Group to analyze research on adolescent sleep patterns. The findings were presented during a town hall meeting and indicated that teenagers have significant difficulty waking up before 8 a.m. — nearly half an hour after York County high schools start now.
After the consultant’s findings were posted on the school division’s website that winter, discussions stopped, according to the timeline presented to board members.
District 3 board member Mark Medford said the school board has requested information on changing school start times several times, but has not taken the leap to actually change them because of the price tag.
During previous years, the school has allocated both time and budget funding to other issues, including changing attendance zones and evaluating bus efficiency, according to District 1 board member Barbara Haywood.
Vice Chair Robert George, District 5, added there are still other issues within the school division that are “incredibly pressing” and take priority over allocating budget resources to school start times.
“We as a board need to make a decision,” Medford said. “There’s no outcry of the community saying ‘By golly, change start times.’”
Within a few minutes of discussion in the meeting, Medford made a motion to keep start times as they are. The board voted unanimously to keep start times the same.
In the nearby Williamsburg-James City County school division, school board officials also have considered changing start times, but — like York County — are focusing on other issues first.
Williamsburg-James City County high schools now start at 7:20 a.m., school spokeswoman Betsy Overkamp-Smith said.
For now, the WJCC School Board will focus on redistricting and the creation of a new five-year strategic plan, Overkamp-Smith added.
Making a change
Chandler, Emery and Howe all believe change will come from school board members.
Because the school board has tabled discussions on start times until a later date, the parents are now pushing to vote in officials that will carry the torch on their issue.
Members of the York County School Board did not return requests for comment.
For now, Emery and Chandler plan to continue driving their children to school so they can sleep an extra half-hour instead of riding the bus.
“I elect for her to sleep in, have a good breakfast, and take her to school,” Emery said of her daughter. “But there are a lot of working parents who cannot do that.”
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