Support HB 1462 - A Maryland Task Force for Later School Start Times

Here's how to sign a petition for later school start times in Montgomery County.

Majority of Start-School-Later Petition Signers From Potomac, Bethesda Areas

Check out the latest information on the Start School Later movement in Montgomery County.

The movement to push back public school start times in Montgomery County may have its widest support in the Potomac and Bethesda areas, according to a study analyzing the Start School Later Montgomery County petition. The petition urging a later school start time of 8:15 a.m. gathered more than 10,000 signatures in 12 weeks through the fall of 2012 and early January 2013.  According to a report released today by the Lloyd Society, a nonprofit research center, support for the petition came from across Montgomery County and corresponded with population distribution. Twenty-seven percent of petition-signers came from the Rockville and Potomac areas, and another 25 percent came from Bethesda and Chevy Chase. Silver Spring and Takoma Park …

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Getting Serious About Starting School Later in Montgomery County

When residents organize does change happen?

  Montgomery County residents have started an official chapter of the Start School Later Initiative, petitioning school officials to give students and parents a break from early school start times. In just under a week, the new chapter lead by Garret Park resident Mandi Mader, a Walter John High School mom, has grabbed more than 2,500 signatures for a petition to the county school board and Montgomery County Superintendent Joshua Starr. The group is encouraging lawmakers to start school no earlier than 8:15 a.m., allowing kids more time for sleep and rest and teachers more time to prepare lessons. “We respectfully request our school board to officially recognize the large and compelling body of research regarding teen sleep and academic …

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Terra Ziporyn Snider, Ph.D.

12:06 pm on Monday, October 22, 2012

So true, Anne. Merely swapping times is not the answer because no child of any age should be required to go to school at unsafe, unhealthy hours. In addition, asking younger teachers to report to duty at 7 am is equally counterproductive. The solution may lie in setting a rock bottom acceptable starting hour for all public schools, which would make it possible for local schools to set their own …   more ›

Featured Blog: Students Speak Out To Start School Later

Our Patch Local Voices blogger Heather Macintosh asks if families are ready for school to start early again.

  What time does your teenager wake up on summer mornings? Blogger Heather Macintosh wants to know. Check out our featured Patch blog: On Monday, Aug. 27, the first school bell in Montgomery County will ring at 7:20 a.m. Are you ready? Our school start times are among the earliest in the country despite the science that shows school schedules are dangerously out of sync with normal adolescent sleep patterns. Heather has written extensively on the Start School Later movement. Now she adds some student voices to the mix. Go here for more.

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Fairfax County Takes Steps to Start School Later

Will Montgomery County follow its neighbor's efforts to send teens to school later in the morning?

Are today’s students up and out of the house too early? The question has garnered a lot of talk on Patch sites around Montgomery County. Over 80 percent of our poll-takers said they’d prefer school hours to start later, and one of our bloggers has been watching a national movement advocating later start times. Now it seems that our neighbors in Fairfax County, VA, are beginning a third official attempt to push back school start times for students in high school. “After 14 years of discussion and two formal attempts to address the issue on its own, the Fairfax County school board will look to a consultant to help it move forward on a resolution to start the system's high school schools after 8 a.m.,” Annandale Patch reports.  One of the …

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Terra Ziporyn Snider, Ph.D.

12:08 pm on Friday, June 15, 2012

This a problem throughout the entire country, and one probably not resolvable through local efforts alone. My recent comment in Education Week explains why we need to start treating school start times as a public health issue if we expect to see progress within our lifetimes (http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/05/16/31snider.h31.html). For more information, see www.StartSchoolLater.net, a …   more ›

POLL: Should School Hours Be Changed to Start Later?

Montgomery County parents and teachers have signed on to a petition encouraging national lawmakers to set school hours to start later in the day.

  "Saved by the bell" may be a common refrain among students in classrooms and hallways, but parents and teachers are starting to ask if children should be saved from the bell instead. Montgomery County parents have signed on to the Start School Later Initiative  encouraging lawmakers to start school no earlier than 8 a.m., allowing kids more time for sleep and rest and teachers more time to prepare lessons. Originating in Severna Park, MD, the petition was presented to members of congress yesterday, according to movement organizer Heather Macintosh, with nearly 5,000 signatures from all 50 states. Over 1,000 of those signatures were from parents and educators in Maryland. "The [petition] comments range from student pleas for a more humane…

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