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A2 UP FRONT
Monday 8 May 2023
To improve kids’ mental health, some schools start later

Continued from Front ed. During the pandemic, out the day, especially lat-
soaring numbers of high er, because I have a lot of
The idea of later school school students expressed after-school things. I would
start times, pushed by persistent feelings of sad- just have a harder time get-
many over the years as a ness or hopelessness, with ting through the day.”
way to help adolescents girls and LGBTQ+ youth re- The school day still ends
get more sleep, is getting porting the highest levels by 3 p.m. Fatima Afrani, a
a new look as a way to of poor mental health and freshman, said that when
address the mental health suicide attempts. It doesn’t she gets home, she’ll usual-
crisis affecting teens across help that research suggests ly relax, then help her mom
the U.S. middle and high school or do homework.
For some schools, the pan- students aren’t getting “If I’m tired I go to sleep,
demic allowed experimen- enough sleep. which was not something
tation to try new schedules. “These mental health chal- I was able to do last year.
Upper Darby, for one, ini- Upper Darby High School Principal Matthew Alloway gestures lenges are already go- Last year I just had to get
while speaking with a reporter during an interview, Wednesday,
tially considered later start April 12, 2023, in Drexel Hill, Pa. ing to happen and then, my homework done be-
times in 2019. Ultimately, Associated Press with the absence of sleep, cause there wasn’t an op-
it found a way to do it this are much worse,” said tion of being able to do it
year by using distance intendent Daniel McGarry our way through it; we’re Orfeu Buxton, director of later,” she said. “And so
learning as a component said. Officials saw a break- in a much better place,” the Sleep, Health & Soci- I liked that if I was tired, I
of the school day. down in students respect- McGarry said. “I think our ety Collaboratory at Penn could listen to my body
As students first came back ing the authority of teach- kids feel better. They’re not State University. “The same and just let myself sleep.”
to in-person learning, many ers in the classroom. 100% better.” But, he said, with decision making, sui- Principal Matthew Alloway
dealt with mental health “We had a lot of those much of the social anxiety cidal ideation, those kinds said educators have no-
struggles and behavioral things that we were fac- students felt after being in of things.” ticed fewer students sleep-
issues, Upper Darby Super- ing and we’re still working online school has dissipat- The reasons why high ing in class. The new sched-
schools start as early as ule also has allowed “kids
they do — many begin to go to school for exactly
their day before 7:30 a.m. what they need,” he said.
— are “lost to the sands of About 400 of the school’s
history,” Buxton said. But 4,250 students attend only
now, he said, “everything is through virtual learning —
baked into that: traffic light an option it offered to com-
patterns, bus schedules pete with online schools.
and adults’ work.” Critics have argued stu-
Nationally, at least nine dents have less instruction
states are considering leg- time in the new schedule.
islation related to school The original 80-minute peri-
start times, up from four ods have been shortened,
the previous year, accord- but Alloway said that it’s
ing to the National Confer- not as if lectures always
ence on State Legislatures. took up the full 80 minutes.
California in 2019 became “It was sometimes a 60-min-
the first and only state to ute concentrated instruc-
dictate school start times. tional time. But then there
Large school systems in- was time to write. There
cluding Denver, Philadel- was time to read. There
phia and Anchorage, Alas- was time to view a video,”
ka, have been looking into he said.
later start times. Other challenges wrought
It can require innovation to by the pandemic — teach-
forge a new schedule. er shortages, for one —
At Upper Darby High, the have also benefitted from
school day technically still the schedule change, ad-
begins at 7:30 a.m., with ministrators said. Teachers
students assigned course- can take care of them-
work to be done remotely selves and their families in
that ties into their lessons the morning. Administrators
for the day. But they can have more time to replace
use the early morning hours staffers who call out sick.
as they see fit — they can Doulat, the Upper Darby
meet with teachers during senior, said that even if stu-
office hours, sleep in or fin- dents can’t see the effects
ish other homework. Ulti- every day, there’s been a
mately, the work assigned big positive impact.
for the early morning needs “It’s such little changes in
to be done, but when is up our daily lives that we don’t
to students. notice it,” he added. “But
“I think getting more sleep they slowly start building
is definitely helping,” Elise up, and we actually see
Olmstead, a junior. “I would the difference within our
be more irritable through- own lives.”q