How do we combat student lack of sleep? It is a simple answer, by allowing students the opportunity to get more sleep. How? By implementing a later school start time sleep later, which is possible through the swapping of high school and elementary school start times.

Our Solution

Why This Solution

With our solution, students would finally be able to reach the recommended amount of sleep from the American Academy of Sleep (8-10 hours). We hope through this we may see results similar to other schools that have successfully implemented this including improved academics, attendance, test scores, and overall health. This boosts physical and mental health and reduces the chance of life-changing health risks such as diabetes, obesity, mental disorders, injuries, and more. In fact, with the school start time already on the table for the Board of Education and in the state, our research and ways to rethink the costs should make this solution feasible.

Young children naturally produce melatonin several hours earlier than teens, so they are able to get to bed earlier. Not to mention that they don't have as much homework and schoolwork to complete. Therefore, they wake up earlier too, more inclined to the bell schedule of the high school. Starting the elementary schools at 7:35 am would follow the body clock of children better and allow their parents to get to work earlier if they need to. This would give high school students the opportunity to sleep an hour later in the mornings and would also align with their biological schedule.

What are some Disadvantages

While our solution offers numerous benefits and addresses significant challenges, it is essential to acknowledge that no solution is perfect. Just like any other approach, our solution also comes with its share of disadvantages. It is crucial to recognize these potential drawbacks in order to understand the full picture and make informed decisions.

We will go over some of the drawbacks of our solution in this introduction, such as operational and financial obligations, scheduling issues for staff and families, transportation problems, concerns about careers, and after-school activities. It is significant to stress that these drawbacks shouldn't overwhelm the potential benefits and favorable effects that our solution might provide. By identifying these difficulties, we can create plans to address them and make sure that our solution is implemented as efficiently as possible.

Operational Issues

Each year the district is allotted a certain amount of money to use as they please, but changing the facility and school schedules would make a dent in this budget. Operating school buses, for example, already costs thousands of dollars per year, and switching this around is no cheap feat.

Staff & Family Scheduling

Many families and staff members set their schedules around the hours that they work and/or when their children are at school. Making such a major switch would cause a lot of changes to be made

Transportation

While there are a number of students that attend Ridge who take the bus daily, there is also a significant amount who get driven to school, as they don't necessarily have to care for themselves. This new change would mean that parents who drop their kids off early would now longer be able to do that since school would be starting much later.

Votech

A percentage of Ridge students attend Somerset County's Vocational Technology School, this school begins at 7:50 am in the morning, which means that students attending this school would get less time there, or have to come to Ridge earlier.

Afterschool Activities

The majority of sports and activities at the high school run after 2:25 pm, they would also be later resulting in students getting home later. Additionally, students who volunteer or work after school would have to start later, which could cause short-staffing.

Constitutionality

Both pushing back the school start time and adding a sleep education curriculum are entirely constitutional because the first amendment states that United States citizens have the right to petition the government. The Board of Education is like the government for students because they dictate our schedules which affect everything else that we do in our lives. Therefore, because there is something we disapprove of, it is justified that we take action. In addition, Amendment Nine of the Constitution states that people have more rights than are listed, which includes the right to prioritize our mental health and have some say in the way that the district runs. As students, we experience firsthand the decisions that the school board makes for us and thus we should be allowed to have some say in it.