California legislators thought they had a sure-fire winner in Senate Bill 328. What teenager wouldn’t want to get a little more sleep?
But four months after the state implemented a law built on the belief that later school start times would help sleep-deprived students, there’s a lot of grumbling at two San Mateo County high schools – and for very different reasons.
SB 328 requires public high schools to start no earlier than 8:30 a.m. and middle schools to open no earlier than 8. State Senator Anthony Portantino (D-Glendale) introduced the bill in response to a substantial body of research linking later start times to significant health benefits, reduced car accidents, and improved academic performance and attendance.
Longitudinal studies also indicate that students with later start times report less daytime sleepiness and feelings of depression.
What’s not to like? Ask many of the 3,800 students at Woodside and Menlo-Atherton high schools, and they’ll say it’s an example of the government trying to solve one problem only to end up creating a ripple of unintended consequences. These critics appear to outnumber students who believe the new start times are beneficial.
“It did more harm than good,” said Sarah Weintraut, a junior at Menlo-Atherton. “The intentions of the bill were really good, but the execution ended up being kind of problematic.”
There are two issues at play. The first involves getting out of school later, which some Woodside students resent because it limits their ability to pursue part-time jobs, finish their homework and maintain an early bedtime. The second involves students at Menlo-Atherton who now wake up to start school at 8:30 – for 80 percent of them, that’s 25 minutes earlier than last school year. The high school modified the scheduling of its first-period classes to fit in all the electives.
Interviews with more than a dozen students from both schools raised questions about traffic safety, heightened stress and the possibility of worsened test scores. While some Woodside students appreciate starting 30 minutes later, most miss having more time in the afternoon to engage in social activities and extracurriculars like sports. “It made pursuing what I was motivated to do more difficult,” said junior orchestra musician Spencer Bergland.
For students with part-time jobs, the law hampered their ability to help support their families. Sophomore Eric Ruiz dreamed of buying a car to avoid waking up early to catch the bus. However, later start times made it impossible for him to work more hours, he said. Although scientific evidence links later start times with better mental health outcomes, some students complain about not having enough time to finish their homework in the afternoons. Woodside sophomore Brooke Mcdonald recalled feeling panic because she lacks the time to be productive.
“It just takes away from our time in childhood,” she added.
In search of productivity, some students also sacrifice their sleep. According to Woodside junior Jessica Lin, the law “has done nothing but make people sleep later.” She wakes up earlier to complete unfinished homework. Others agree. Ava Chotai, captain of Woodside’s women’s golf team, blames the new start times for undermining her performance in the classroom and on the golf course. “It just impacts the amount of knowledge I’m able to attain,” she said.
Junior Tucker Gillbrand said the new schedule makes him crave staying up later. However, he recognizes that the increase in workload from one academic year to the next could be to blame for his later bedtime. Some parents make the argument that SB 328 encourages students to sleep late in the morning and stay up late at night. “But what it reinforces is the natural circadian rhythms of the age group,” countered Alan Sarver, a school board member in the Sequoia Union High School District, which includes Woodside and Menlo-Atherton.
Across studies, the relationship between bedtimes and later start times is not definitively linked. But multiple researchers concur that later start times help students to better align their schedules with their bodies’ internal clock, known as circadian rhythm.
“High school students typically exhibit sleep patterns that are delayed, meaning they are biologically predisposed to going to bed later,” said Dr. Scott Kutscher, a Stanford University sleep specialist. The problem with sleeping later comes when students have to wake up earlier. At Menlo-Atherton, “the law had a negative impact on 80% of our kids,” said Principal Karl Loseekot, because “students are now actually coming to school earlier.”
Last year, 80% of Menlo-Atherton students began their day at 8:55 a.m., while 20% enrolled in zero-period electives starting at 8. This year, the school replaced so-called zero period with seventh-period electives. It also shifted its first period to 8:30, almost half an hour earlier than last year, which is the opposite of what the law intended. Early first periods are an indirect consequence, rather than direct result, of SB 328. The law includes an exception that allows zero period classes to start before 8:30 as long as they are not academic and do not count toward instructional minutes.
But some Menlo-Atherton students need to count electives as academic classes. Therefore, the school’s administration introduced a seventh period to assist these students and meet California’s annual instructional minutes requirement. “You have laws so that 100% of the kids benefit,” said Losekoot, not just 80% of them.
Many students are dissatisfied, including those engaged in zero-period electives. “That’s an internal conversation [among legislators] that those students should have with their school district,” said Portantino, the state senator who introduced SB 328.
Menlo-Atherton junior Iris Stevenson said she prefers to take zero-period electives because she struggles with participating during seventh period. Manuel Delgado, who teaches mathematics, agreed that many students were more engaged during the morning in past years. A larger factor, Stevenson suggested, is that many of her friends are leaving the campus by sixth period.
Stevenson also misses zero period because there was less traffic. Now, all students arrive at school at the same time for first-period classes, which has exacerbated traffic and impacted students’ sleep. Advocates of SB 328 emphasize that the bill champions student safety. A recent study showed that later start times lead to lower self-reported drowsy driving by students. In addition, a University of Minnesota study found significant improvements in grades and test performances among students starting school at 8:30 or later.
Menlo-Atherton senior Olivia Hom has found the opposite to be true. She has found herself making “stupid mistakes” on tests in early classes because she was tired. Mirroring that frustration, Menlo-Atherton senior Datis Hoghooghi recalled pleading with one of his teachers for coffee to power through morning tests. “I don’t think I would have needed that coffee” in the past, he said.
Other Menlo-Atherton students appreciate the new schedule because it gives them more flexibility. For instance, it makes electives more enticing for those who were reluctant to wake up early for zero period, said senior tennis player Natalie Tantisira.
Tantisira added that athletes who do not have a seventh-period class can now take advantage of that time to complete homework and form study groups prior to practice.
Students and parents also applaud the transportation flexibility. Last year, Jay Argarwal’s parents drove him to Menlo-Atherton because the bus would only make an early stop to serve those enrolled in zero-period classes. This year, Jay can take the bus without having to wake up earlier for an elective that he is not enrolled in.
Proponents of SB 328 highlight that parents with busy schedules can drop off their children earlier if need be. Wendy Porter, administrative vice principal of Woodside, said that the school makes its library available for students arriving early. Anecdotally, Woodside and Menlo-Atherton students gripe about the law’s unintended consequences. But research studies surveying students across time, often years after new start times were implemented, show overwhelming benefits.
Then, is it too soon to gauge unintended consequences? Perhaps.
Lisa Lewis, author of “The Sleep-Deprived Teen,” cautioned that there is an adjustment period following later start times. “The previous schedule wasn’t necessarily convenient, either, but it’s just what they had become used to,” she said. According to Portantino, change is difficult. He emphasized the importance of educating people on the science behind SB 328 so that students can fully reap its benefits.
Scientific evidence indicates that sleep deprivation does not boil down to a single factor. Joy Wake, policy and advocacy director of the Start School Later coalition, warns that habits play a significant role, and that later start times are not the “be-all and end-all.” They simply “give adolescents the opportunity to get the sleep that they need,” she said. Otherwise, those unwilling to challenge their routines and seize this opportunity might continue to experience unintended consequences.
“Even with an optimal school start time in place,” Lewis said, “it’s still possible to sabotage your sleep.”
