A report from The Journal indicates that a study has confirmed positive outcomes from later school start times, including improvements in tardiness and disciplinary violations.
A new study in the journal Sleep has confirmed the idea that there could be positive outcomes if high schoolers were able to start school later in the morning. This research, performed by faculty members at St. Lawrence University in New York, set out to determine whether “sleep, mood, behavior and academics improved after a 45-minute delay in high school start time.” The outcome: Even though students delayed but didn’t necessarily extend their sleep time, the researchers did find “lasting improvements” in two areas: tardiness and disciplinary violations.
Beginning in May 2012, Associate Professors of psychology Pamela Thacher and Serge Onyper collected baseline data from school records and student self-reporting at New York’s Glen Falls High School. At that point the start time for classes was 7:45 a.m. After the start time was moved to 8:26 at the beginning of the 2012-2013 school year, the researchers performed two follow-ups, one in November 2012 and the other in May 2013. Instead of school ending at 2:22 p.m., it ended each day at 3 p.m.
