Later school start time could be beneficial for teens

High school students in the South Washington County district are headed toward starting their days later next year, while some students in lower grades are likely to start their days earlier, if community response to a district-wide poll is any indication.

District officials are pushing the earlier start times in response to research they say shows that the teenage body clock naturally keeps them up later at night and gets them up later in the morning. For the school district, the change under consideration is part of broader plans to adjust to the opening of new East Ridge High School next fall and its decision to reconfigure its junior high schools into middle schools.

By moving high school start times later for high schoolers, the district would join others that have done so, including Edina, Minneapolis and North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale school district. Currently the Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan school and the Farmington districts are considering such a change. In the South Washington County district, where high school now starts at 7:30 a.m., officials are considering moving that to 8:30 a.m. The school day, which currently ends at 2 p.m., would be pushed back to 3 p.m.

"It's appropriate to have our high school students start later," said Dave Bernhardson, a principal on special assignment who's working on the start-times project.

"The teenage brain is in a very different state of development than a prepubescent brain or an adult's," said Kyla Wahlstrom of the University of Minnesota, who studies the impact of education policies on students. Basically, the teenage brain is not awake because melatonin secretions are not optimal early in the morning, Wahstrom explains. "It's not a matter of getting them to bed earlier so they can wake up earlier. It's just a biological fact."

Apparently many parents agree. Seventy-six percent of the respondents to an informal web-based survey the district conducted said they believe the research. But slightly less than that total, 69 percent, said they believe a change in start times would benefit learning for high school students.

Teens more engaged, alert

Wahlstrom has studied how school start times affect kids for almost 15 years and has become a nationally recognized expert. Her research has found that teachers report teens are much more engaged in classes that begin later and parents have found that their teenagers who go to start classes later are easier to get along with.

Two other benefits from a later start time for teens is that because they start later and end later, police report fewer incidences of kids hanging around places without much to do. In Minneapolis, the teenage pregnancy rate declined.

"Most teenage conceptions occur in the afternoon," Wahlstrom said. "That's when things are happening, when there's nobody around and kids are home from school."

South Washington County district officials plan to present several transportation options to the public for discussion and the school board for consideration; they say they will likely disappoint some people no matter what they do. That's because the district's school bus service doesn't have the capacity to deliver all the students to their schools at the same time, so they make multiple runs in the morning and afternoon.

A later start time for high schools will mean an earlier start for some elementary or middle schools, a prospect that can affect family and work schedules.

"I'm convinced from the information and research we've seen that a later start for high school is a great idea," said Stacey Crane, who represents high school parents on the district committee studying start times. "But it's all over the map on what to do with the rest of the kids."

Gregory A. Patterson • 651-298-1546