Con
December 12, 2019
Despite the benefits of having later school starts, this change creates a conflict towards parents who most likely have tight work schedules. For parents, early school starts are more convenient because it allows them to drop off their child before going to work. Having a later school start will pose a problem because of the time constraints parents will have to work out. Healthline indicated that having an earlier school start would give parents reassurance that their child has a source of transportation. This assurance could turn into an issue if there is a later start time in school.
When the late start legislation is implemented into California’s school schedule, it pushes back extracurricular activities as school is bound to end at a later time. Thus, students will end up arriving home at a later time and starting homework late as well. Because of this, an adequate sleep schedule is still far from obtainable.
It is important for parents to teach their kids the benefits of sleep and how important it is to have enough sleep. Many students tend to sleep late because they are distracted by factors such as technology, thus it is essential for parents to execute a reasonable sleep schedule so students do not suffer from sleep deprivation. Having an early start time would help enforce this as students will learn to prioritize their sleep over distractions. A later school time would give students an extra hour or two on their devices, making a later start time less impactful.
Whatever happens in the future, students: please take care of yourselves and prioritize your health over anything else. Get enough sleep. Control your usage on your phone and be productive. When you enact this, having an earlier or later start time will not make a significant difference in your sleep schedule.