Starting August 15, 2024, Glenbard schools will be pushing back the school start time by 25 minutes, from 7:35 am to 8:00 am. This unexpected change is due to the upcoming hybrid block schedule, and has been implemented to ensure that student productivity and mental wellness is maintained.
District administration continued explaining how “research indicates a later start time has physiological benefits for adolescents that lead to better engagement and increased student learning.”
In a letter from Superintendent Dr. Larson to Glenbard families, “we are excited to launch a hybrid block schedule in the 2024-25 school year and implement later start and dismissal times. This schedule will provide deeper learning experiences for our students and enhance our Profile of a [Glenbard] Graduate competencies.”
The American Psychological Association (APA) wrote in an article that “while individual differences in communities and research methodology have led to different outcomes [from later school start times], results are almost always positive.” APA continued to state the many benefits found in later start times, such as “increased attendance rates […] decrease in disciplinary action, […] decrease in student-involved car accidents, […] increase in quality of student-family interaction.” amongst other benefits. Furthermore, “among students whose start times were delayed, final grades were 4.5 percent higher, compared with students who took the class when school started earlier.” However, although later start times have many benefits, APA and NEA News both highlight an overlying issue. “American public high schools to begin their instructional day between 7–8 a.m. Research has shown that these early bell times are responsible for the discrepancy between how much sleep teens need and how much sleep they get.” In other words, for the overall concept of getting more sleep and increasing productivity the start time needs to be between 8:30 and 9:00 a.m.
Changing the school start time is a monumental task. Glenbard has switched companies, from First Student to Safeway Transportation Services to make it happen. Although changing the start time may cause inconvenience to those accustomed to the previous schedule, it is a step towards prioritizing student well-being.
