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Schools

Grassroots Group Takes School Start Times Issue to Congress

A hot-button issue in Dearborn schools–later start times for high school students–will be brought before Congress March 7 by a Maryland-based group.

An issue that has been a recent topic of discussion in Dearborn Public Schools will be making its way to Washington, D.C., today: later start times for high school students.

On Feb. 27, and , the DPS Board of Education to give students in the district's three high schools the option to start school one hour later than usual.

But a grassroots coalition of parents, teachers, and health professionals based out of Maryland called Start School Later is looking to make later start times a national mandate.

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In honor National Sleep Awareness Week, the group will begin delivering a petition advocating a minimum school start time of 8 a.m. to Congress and White House officials on Wednesday, March 7. The petition has gathered nearly 5,000 signatures from all 50 states and Washington, D.C.

“Most U.S. high schools today start in the 7 a.m. hour, a practice that began several decades ago primarily to save money on bus runs,” explains Terra Ziporyn Snider, Ph.D., a medical writer and the petition creator from Maryland who is also the mother of three.

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After more than a decade of work advocating for later start times in her local school system, Snider recounts, “Although evidence is crystal clear that starting later is best for health and learning, political obstacles and myths have made change virtually impossible in most districts.”

Likewise in Dearborn, where the idea of switching middle school and high school start times was first discussed in 2009 after several parents made the request. A study of the district presented in March 2011 showed that switching start times was feasible.

But school board trustees were skeptical of the idea.

“I don’t think it would make much difference,” said Trustee Aimee Blackburn last year, referring to the effect changing times might have on high school students' ability and willingness to get up in time for school. “Students often don’t want to go to school–I don’t think the time difference is going to change it.”

In February, the board for high school students only, but some parents didn't feel it went far enough.

“The plan is not adequate,” said parent Ernest Oz of the optional late start at the school board's Feb. 27 meeting. “It’s designed to accommodate adults.”

The Start School Later coalition agrees, and plans to deliver petition signatures weekly to legislators in an effort called “Wake Up Wednesdays."

To view or sign the petition, visit their page on signon.org.

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