Everyone agrees that teens need more sleep. So why does school start so early? This report examines the research on school start times and the implications for students in Baltimore City.
Primarily in response to student transportation challenges, Baltimore City Public School System (City Schools) pushed start times for many schools earlier for the 2022-2023 school year, affecting most adolescents in the district. As a result, in the 2023-24 school year, 81% of high schools started before 8:30 a.m., with many starting as early as 7:30 a.m.
While this decision was made after discussions with stakeholders on the benefits and challenges of both earlier and later school start times, it is counter to policy statements from major health, medical, and education organizations recommending that secondary schools start classes no earlier than 8:30 a.m.
These recommendations are based on nearly three decades of research on adolescent sleep, circadian rhythms, and health. Well established research shows that because of changes to sleep regulatory systems during adolescence, secondary students with later school start times not only get better sleep but also have improved school performance and fewer absences, tardies, discipline challenges, symptoms of depression and anxiety, substance misuse, and even automobile crashes.
Importantly, too, students living in urban communities like Baltimore, who disproportionately experience poverty, housing instability, and other challenging life circumstances, show greater improvements from later school start times than their peers.
In this report, researchers discuss the significance of later school start times for the health and safety of youth in middle and high school in Baltimore City Schools. The report reviews the science on adolescent sleep and circadian rhythms, the consequences of insufficient, ill-timed, and poor-quality sleep, sleep health disparities, and research on outcomes associated with later school start times. Then, the report provides an overview of the City Schools context and recommendations for prioritizing healthy school start times for adolescent students.
Districtwide policy and statewide legislation around school start times can support healthier sleep and improved academic outcomes for City Schools students.