State Mandate Of School Start Times Not Favored In New Jersey

By Bob Pepalis | The Center Square contributor, The Center Square New Jersey

(The Center Square) – "The New Jersey School Boards Association said school start times are a matter best left to local school boards in response to their communities’ needs," a spokesperson for the organization said.

Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, D-Middlesex, sponsored a bill in the New Jersey Legislature that requires public schools that receive state aid to start instruction at high schools no earlier than 8:30 a.m., according to a summary of A3816. Sen. Vin Gopal, D-Monmouth, sponsored an identical bill in the Senate, S2462.

“NJSBA believes that the state should not mandate school start times; rather they should be determined by local school boards in response to local needs, conditions, and community input,” Janet Bamford, chief public affairs officer for the New Jersey School Boards Association, told the Center Square.

"The New Jersey Education Association has yet to review or take a position on the legislation," Steven Baker, director of communications for the organization, told The Center Square.

“However, we are well aware of a large body of research that indicates that later start times would be physiologically and academically beneficial to many teenagers. We believe that any reform that might benefit students is well worth considering and implementing,” he said.

Bamford said, "well-documented research indicates adolescents are not getting sufficient sleep for their health and well-being." " The American Academy of Pediatrics strongly supported the idea of later school start times to deal with this," she said.

She pointed out a story published on the association’s website by Dr. Bert Mandelbaum, chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at Penn Medicine Princeton Health Center, discussing the science behind the case for later school start times. Mandelbaum said, "a shift in melatonin release during adolescence also changes their sleeping habits."

“If we know adolescents need a minimum of eight hours of sleep to prevent the consequences listed above and we know that they cannot fall asleep until 10:30 to 11 p.m., then we know we shouldn’t wake them up until 6:30 to 7 a.m. at the earliest,” Mandelbaum wrote in his story. That pushes the start time for instruction to 8:30 a.m. However, changing school start times is not that easy.

“But there are also hurdles to implementing later start times, including the potential for increased transportation costs, difficulty in scheduling after-school activities, unintended impacts on other students – particularly elementary school children – and programs, and disruption to family schedules,” Bamford said. “Therefore, NJSBA believes this is a matter best decided at the local level.”

Baker agreed that many factors must be considered when deciding how to structure the school day. Changes could not happen in a vacuum. “They would have a ripple effect in many areas, from start times for the lower grades to bussing schedules to the scheduling of after-school activities,” Baker said. “But student health and academic well-being should remain at the center of those discussions.”

A 2017 “Final Report Study Group on Later School Start Times” by the New Jersey Department of Education found that 14% of the targeted school district and charter school administrators said their middle and high schools had start times of 8:30 a.m. or later. Of those with earlier start times, approximately 91% were not considering schedule changes.

"Issues some of the surveyed schools said would prevent later start times included transportation coordination and costs," according to the report. Athletic event conflicts and child-care issues were also concerns.

"An email campaign by the study group found that most parents, students and district and building administrators cited the need for increased sleep as a reason for later start times," according to the report.

The focus of the work of The Center Square New Jersey is state and local-level government and economic reporting that approaches stories with a taxpayer sensibility.