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By Miriam Raftery
October 14, 2019 (San Diego’s East County) – Middle and high school students in urban and surburban areas will soon get to sleep in later due to Senate Bill 328 signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom. The bill requires that middle schools start no earlier than 8 a.m. and high school at 8:30 a.m. or later, but rural districts are exempted.
The rural exemption is due primarily to long distances that some rural students must travel, as well as accommodations for farmworkers in agricultural areas. A definition of rural districts is expected to be hammered out in an upcoming legislative session, since the bill won’t take effect until 2022.
The measure applies to all other public middle and high schools in the state, including charters, but not to private schools. It does not apply to before-school extra-curricular activities.
California is the first state in the nation to mandate later start times for schools. The bill, however, proved controversial, with support from doctors groups, parents and teachers, but opposition from a major teachers’ union and the California School Boards Association.
“The science shows that teenage students who start their day later increase their academic performance, attendance, and overall health,” Newsom said in a statement.
“Importantly, the law allows three years for schools and school districts to plan and implement these changes.”
The bill was authored by State Senator Anthony Portantino, who says it puts “children’s health and welfare ahead of bureaucracy.” It had support of some local lawmakers including Assembly members Lorena Gonzalez-Fletcher and Todd Gloria.
The bill was supported by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the California Medical Association and the California State Parent Teachers Association (PTA), which cited studies that found students in schools with later start times benefitted from extra sleep and had better school performance and health.
The pediatricians’ professional group has specifically recommended that adolescents should not start school before 8:30 a.m. in most districts. The pediatriciansassociation recognizes “insufficient sleep in adolescents as a public health issue, endorses the scientific rationale for later school start times, and acknowledges the potential benefits to students with regard to physical and mental health, safety and academic achievement.”
Teens and adolescents are more apt than younger children to stay up late doing homework, socializing with friends, or working at paid jobs, leading to insufficient sleep and fatigue.
The bill has drawn opposition, however, from some school districts and parents, who say later start times burden parents to change work schedules or find alternative transportation to get children to work later. It could push after-school activities later in the day and affect bus scheduling, potentially costing money for already cash-strapped districts.
A similar measure was vetoed in 2018 by then-Governor Jerry Brown and another such bill was previously rejected by the Legislature in 2017.
The California Teachers Association says the bill will create challenges that will impact students. “SB 328 could have a disproportionately negative impact on working families, particularly laborers and service industry employees who don’t have the option of starting their workday later,” said Claudia Briggs, a CTA spokeswoman, the Los Angeles Times reports.
She adds, “We know from experience that many of these parents will drop their children off at school at the same time they do now, regardless of whether there is supervision, and there is not enough funding from the state for before school programs to ensure the safety of students who will be dropped off early.”
Proving that point after San Diego Unified School District recently voluntarily moved to a later start time, a 10 News investigation found some parents with early work schedules continuing to drop off children as early as 7 a.m. The teens were left waiting outside locked gates without adult supervision.
Those opposed argued that decisions on when to start classes should be made at the local level to best meet individual community needs.
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