Current Events > California votes to bar schools from starting before 8:30am

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http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/09/01/california-votes-to-bar-schools-from-starting-before-8-30am-to-help-give-students-more-sleep.html

California lawmakers voted Friday to bar middle and high schools from starting before 8:30 a.m., one of dozens of proposals debated in the Legislature on the final day of its legislative session.

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Nearly 80 percent of California middle and high schools started earlier than 8:30 a.m. in 2012, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

If Gov. Jerry Brown signs SB328, schools will have about three years to comply. It would not apply to rural schools or to extra periods offered before the start of a school day. It would not mandate changes to school day lengths.

Supporters point to science that shows later start times make kids healthier by letting them get more sleep and help them graduate.

more @ link
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Why did schools even start before that time in the first place
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Honestly... I approve
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Bio1590 posted...

Why did schools even start before that time in the first place

Probably because parents dropped their kids off and don't want to pay for them to be watched. Not defending it. Don't have much opinion on this. Just assuming that's the reason.

School should be in session from 8am to 3pm. Californian legislators just cannot go one day without screwing something up.
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Bio1590 posted...

Why did schools even start before that time in the first place

Seriously. Even if we're supposed to get into some 9-5 or even 8-5 routine for employment after high school, like... We started at 7:20 and the first 10 minutes were basically attendance, hand in homework for this class, then the announcements via the intercom. And we'd get out at 2:10. But the middle schools would start at 8:30 and get out at 3:00.

I guess school bus and drivers being a limited thing for some school districts or just plain some schools in certain states might be an issue. But for areas like most of California, there shouldn't be an excuse.
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LastTomorrow posted...

Honestly... I approve

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Good
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I honestly can't remember when my school started, but I would much rather have gotten in as early as possible and left as early as possible. Starting later would have just eaten up more of the day.

nice, I had to start at 8:00 am, and if I had a zero period I had to get there at 7:00 am
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I had high school at 7am to 2:30pm and it sucked to go in that early >_>
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School was 9-3:15 for me growing up. who the hell starts school before 8:30?
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Kids don't fully wake up after 9 anyway. They just trudge through the early morning half asleep.
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when I was in high school we started at 7:15 and got out at 2:05
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The explanation is usually that if you end the school day later, extracurriculars/homework then become too much of a cram in the afternoons/evenings.
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We started school by 8:20 am.

Some kinds, that lives way up the hollows or the hills, had to ride the bus for like an hour and half. They consolidated the high schools in 93 in the county, due to old buildings and drooping enrollment. So, that made some kids have long bus rides. The high school and middle school were in the center of the county, on a closed campus, and outside of town.

We got out at 3:20 or so.

The start and end time never bothered me much. I was the last kid picked up on my bus route and the first off though. I hated waking up in the morning, I still do, so the difference between 7, 8, or 9 would have no impact on me.

But, if it's good for the children, I support it.
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Bio1590 posted...

Why did schools even start before that time in the first place

I think the real reason is so that they can recycle school buses. Where I grew up, the school buses would do high schools first (which started at around 7:30 - 7:40 AM), then middle schools (which started at around 8:10 or 8:20 AM), and then finally the elementary schools which would start around 9 AM.

The buses would usually do high school and middle school together (like picking up the kids at the same stops at the same time) but then would go to the high school first, drop the HS kids off, then go to the middle school. Then after emptying out the bus at the middle school, they would go do a fresh round for the elementary school students (which are smaller and cover smaller areas which makes it a bit quicker).

The only way doing this is possible is by spreading out the start times of the various schools. This was the reasoning explained to me for why HS kids had to start so much earlier than elementary school kids.

People bring up parents needing to get to work and stuff, but most schools would have some kind of before-school care or equivalent to deal with that. In elementary school it was a closely supervised thing, but in middle and high schools they'd just open up the library and some tables near the lobby for people to hang out and do homework and stuff if they needed to be dropped off really early.
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Bio1590 posted...

Why did schools even start before that time in the first place

Probably to allow busses to avoid rush hour traffic and so parents with jobs can drop their kids off and still get to work on time. The further back you push the start time, the longer the commutes are going to be for the kids and the more parents are going to be crunched to see them off and still get to work on time.
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As a teacher I don't necessarily have a problem with that, but there are gonna be problems with this.

Like in my district the high school starts at 8 and the elementary starts at 9 because we share buses between buildings. Schools set up like that might have issues not wanting to start too late.
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I'm sure kids are just going to stay up later because school now starts later, we're giving high school kids way too much credit here. Of course they did an excellent job bringing in sob stories about homework until midnight, because that's obviously a by product of school start time bonus they have to start homework later now too since they get out later

Also have fun with practices getting out at like 6:30 now. Our state does some dumb shit man.
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7.30 am to 2.30 pm was what hours I had, and I enjoyed it. I hated going to school at 8am or later.
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Antifar posted...

The explanation is usually that if you end the school day later, extracurriculars/homework then become too much of a cram in the afternoons/evenings.

I understand the concern, but if every other generation was capable of handling homework, why cant these kids? Ill point out that a 70% was the lowest passing grade when I was in school, and now its 50%, so its not exactly like the coursework is any tougher.

School is watered down and these kids are literally butthurt that they dont get as much Nintendo time as they did over the summer. Thats life, man. What would your boss say if you complained that your work schedule didnt give you enough time to play videogames or watch tv? School should prepare kids for life, and doing things that suck is part of life. You dont always get to whine and cry until somebody changes the system.
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the school i work at already starts at 8:30am so

whatever.
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Good.

Should end earlier too and cut homework

southcoast09 posted...

School should be in session from 8am to 3pm. Californian legislators just cannot go one day without screwing something up.

Stfu hillbilly
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I used to have to get up at ~5ish and ride a bus for an hour to start school at 7:30. Definitely impacted my mental health. At boarding school I can get up at 9 AM. The difference is night and day.
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Hopefully this catches on because it really isn't one of those crazy California health kicks.

My school started at 7:20 and I was one of the first bus stops, so I was waking up at like 5:45 every day even though I went to bed around 10 or 11.

I developed serious depression during that time and nowadays it's pretty obvious to me why.

Its insane that we have kids wake up at 5 or 6 in the morning to be ready for school at 7, keep them there until 3 and then give them several hours more of homework after that. And on top of that the system we have trains kids how to memorize it doesnt teach them to retain knowledge. Our system is fucked but no one will admit it or want to fix it for whatever reason.
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My high school was 8:30 to 2:30. Good times
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Bio1590 posted...

Why did schools even start before that time in the first place

This

I was useless before 9
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VipaGTS posted...

Its insane that we have kids wake up at 5 or 6 in the morning to be ready for school at 7, keep them there until 3 and then give them several hours more of homework after that. And on top of that the system we have trains kids how to memorize it doesnt teach them to retain knowledge. Our system is fucked but no one will admit it or want to fix it for whatever reason.

I support school choice now for reasons like this.
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