Should High School Start Later? One New England State is Considering a Big Change

This past year, I coached the Dover High School Girls' Tennis Team. Of all of the things that the season and player taught me, one thing stood out - just how hard it is to be a student-athlete in high school.

There were numerous away matches where the girls would leave school early, and not get back into the parking lot until it was dark...after 9 pm on occasions. I could only imagine what the girls went through during the season, being out so late, having to do homework or study, going to bed for a few hours, and waking up at 6 am to be at school by 7.

According to an NBC10 article, Massachusetts lawmakers are considering a proposal that would mandate later school start times statewide, a proposed bill that seems to divide New Englanders.

This concept is already being put into practice at one Massachusetts high school, Westwood. The start time at Westwood High School was pushed back 50 minutes, from 7:25 a.m. to 8:15 a.m.

“There have been over 30 peer-reviewed articles saying that start times that early are bad for children’s mental health, bad for their physical health, as well as impacting academic outcomes," said Tony Mullin, Massachusetts chapter leader for Start School.

“The real reason for that is because during adolescence, children’s biological clock shifts about 2 hours, so they actually can’t really go to sleep until about 11 p.m. so to get the full amount of sleep they need to wake up later,"

Those against the later start time pointed at the difficulty it would cause for parents to get to work on time...a valid counterargument.