California is now considering starting the school day later for high school and middle school students. The people who are in support of the new law are hoping that classes starting later will benefit public health. Many advocates of this idea are hoping they see an improvement in student health — including lower rates of depression and fewer students falling asleep during their classes.
A later start for school time could also have its downfall. It could cause teens to not have enough time to find after-school jobs. Many sports practices would be affected since by the time the students are out of school it would be dark. This change is already bringing up a lot of controversy among students, at Logan and elsewhere, who want to be able to find a job, take public transportation, or play sports, just to name a few things.
“I just recently got a job at the cinema and I wouldn’t be able to imagine how I would deal with time changes if I have to focus on finishing my school work and work in such a crunched uptime,” Lema Bakhtani, a sophomore at Gustine High School, said.
California is not the first place to try this. In Youngstown, Ohio, the school district decided to change the start time of schools to 9:15 in the morning, meaning that school would end around 4:30 in the afternoon. However, schools in the district just recently dropped the new schedule. The time changes created more absences and tardies instead of an expected decline. After school programs and jobs were more difficult to maintain because students didn’t have easy modes of transportation.
“I feel like students wouldn’t feel like coming to school if it started so late and it gives them more excuses to cut or be tardy. Students also want to be able to maintain a job, but this time change would just disregard all of it,” Navneen Dhaliwal, a Logan senior said.
The people who are still in support of the idea believe that the pros will outweigh the cons. These supporters believe that attending school later in the day will allow the students to think clearly and be able to focus better, which in the long run will help improve their overall health. As they move forward the California government should not forget about the students’ voices when debating whether or not the policy will impact students’ extracurricular and health.
