Parents have long struggled with the morning ritual of dragging their teenagers from bed as they plead for just five more minutes of sleep.
Now, the teenagers have research to back them up.
Armed with sleep studies, slide show presentations, and a growing trend toward later school days around the state, a group of Plymouth students is lobbying school officials to set their alarm clocks back.
“Almost every student is negatively affected by school start times, whether they realize it or not,” Skye Togun, an eighth grader at the time, told the School Committee at one of students’ presentations. Her civics class at Plymouth South Middle School spent a year researching the topic.
“A later start time would give students more opportunity to get the sleep they need, which could help them arrive at school feeling more awake, alert, and prepared to learn,” Togun said.
The effort has the attention of the School Committee, which has agreed to study the proposal.
At the Oct. 19 School Committee meeting, Superintendent Chris Campbell announced the district would officially begin researching changes. One option under consideration is flipping elementary and secondary school start times to give older kids more sack time.
Currently, high school starts at 7:20 a.m., middle school starts at 8:12 a.m., and elementary school starts at 9:05 a.m.
“As someone who’s raised kids, when my children were young, they were wide awake at 6:30 in the morning,” Campbell said in a phone call with the Independent. “When they enter middle school and high school, sleeping patterns change; they need more sleep.”
Campbell said the district is in a “fact-finding time” and has not committed to making any changes. The district plans to survey parents and faculty to assess how a shift in start times may impact families.
The review will involve numerous considerations, including busing, extracurricular activities, child care availability, and teen health. Changes could take years to implement, officials said.
Several nearby districts have pushed back start times, including Marshfield Public Schools in 2024 and Duxbury Public Schools in 2009. In Boston, proposed changes in 2017 were halted after parent protests.
State lawmakers have also introduced legislation to require high schools start no earlier than 8:30 a.m. and middle schools no earlier than 8 a.m. The bill, filed in 2025, remains in committee.
“Right now, the message to the community is, we’re not making any drastic changes,” Campbell said. “We’re just looking for information and feedback.”
Regardless of whether the district ultimately flips start times, officials will review arrival and dismissal times amid growing complaints from parents about late buses.
“Right now, the buses can’t necessarily get to the next schools, especially at dismissal time,” said Adam Blaisdell, Assistant Superintendent for Finance and School Operations, at the Oct. 19 meeting. “Unfortunately, with traffic the way it is in this town right now and the number of buildings, that has to be a major focus at this point to address that, because kids are getting home late.”
In addition to the presentation from the Civics class at Plymouth South Middle School, the committee has heard similar arguments from an Advanced Placement U.S. History class at Plymouth South High School.
“Most mental health issues related to stress are caused by lack of sleep,” Plymouth South High School students wrote in a slide show reviewed by the committee. “Teens who are able to receive a successful 8-10 hours of sleep a night are less likely to get a chronic mental health problem.”
Luis Pizano, chair of the School Committee, said the student presentations helped prompt the administration to take a closer look at the issue.
“Personally, it’s been something that has been on my mind since I’ve been on the board, and I had parents mention it to me here and there over the years,” Pizano said. “In my position as chair, I committed to implementing an agenda item for the upcoming school year to look at it.”
Students have pointed to research showing that, during puberty, teens experience a shift in their circadian rhythms, causing them to fall asleep and wake up later. Some studies have found later start times reduce drowsiness and improve developmental outcomes.
“There’s no shortage of research out there that shows the way we do things is a little bit backwards, which is why other districts have made those kinds of changes,” Pizano said.
The Marshfield School Committee voted to delay start times for middle and high school students in 2024, implementing the changes that fall. High school now starts at 8 a.m., 45 minutes later than before, while middle school starts at 8:05 a.m., 25 minutes later. Elementary schools start at 8:45 a.m.
Richard Greer, a member of the Marshfield School Committee, said the district’s review was initially prompted by potential cost savings from consolidating school buses.
“Once some of the public heard that the committee was looking into consolidating buses, they said, our kids need more sleep,” he said.
Feedback on the changes has been mixed, he said.
“Some kids say they get an extra hour of sleep, while others just stay up an hour later now,” Greer said.
Plymouth’s school district has roughly twice as many students and schools as Marshfield, presenting additional challenges, said Glenn Koocher, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees.
Koocher said the association surveyed its members on school start time adjustments about five years ago, when the issue was receiving more attention.
“The discussion was, interestingly enough, largely driven by athletic programs,” he said. “By the time they get to the playing field, it’s 4:35 [p.m.] … and when do they do the homework? When do they play the game?”
In addition to the planned surveys, Pizano said he hopes to organize a community forum on the issue by the end of the year.
Campbell said the district will also consult community partners, including the YMCA, to determine if they could accommodate child care needs if schedules change.
“By the end of the calendar year, we’ll have more information regarding people’s thoughts, concerns, opinions, and that may lead to additional questions,” he said. “We’ll do all our homework and then hopefully, late winter, early spring, have more information and additional updates.”
Emily Spatz can be reached at emily@plymouthindependent.org.