By now, the science is clear: making school start times later, even by an hour, gives teenagers the opportunity to wake up at a time that better aligns with their biological sleep rhythms. Start time changes, in turn, have proven to result in better physical and mental health, improved academics, and fewer teen-driving accidents.
It seems like a no-brainer to make these changes.
In countless cases, bus transportation is to blame.
Even so, every district’s logistical challenges vary, and the perceived obstacles associated with adjusting bus services don’t always materialize, say advocates for later school start times for middle and high school students.
The following four strategies can support districts as they consider a shift in bus services to accommodate later start times, say experts.
“You could have someone [at the district level] say, “‘I’m not going to monkey with this. It’s a lot of work,’” said Kyla Wahlstrom, senior research fellow at the University of Minnesota’s College of Education and Human Development. Formerly a teacher and principal before becoming a researcher of innovations in education, Wahlstrom has studied perceived obstacles associated with changing bus schedules.
Resistance to putting kids of all ages on buses is one. “There’s no reason, other than parents fear their kindergarten kids will hear swear words, that it can’t be done,” Wahlstrom said. “Rural districts do it all the time.”
Then there’s the perceived extra cost. “People who haven’t looked at all the other alternatives make an assumption that we have to add buses, and that it’s going to cost the district half a million dollars,” Wahlstrom said. “There are a lot of districts that have made this change with a zero cost.”
Not even the most clever algorithms can solve the potential challenge of satisfying competing interests of all players involved. “As one person [involved in a district transition] said to me, ‘They’re not Fed Ex packages; they’re people,’” Wahlstrom said.
Even researchers acknowledge this. “Algorithms can help a lot; however, it’s still people we are talking about. These are tough choices, from communicating to families to making sure that everybody’s heard. An algorithm will not help with that,” said Sebastien Martin, one of the MIT researchers involved in developing the solution for the Boston district. He should know.
His research team’s model was unanimously approved by the Boston School Committee—a move that would have brought the first change to school start times there in three decades. But the plan was later scrapped after protests from some families.
Between 2000 and 2010, Wahlstrom communicated with more than 400 superintendents and principals seeking information and guidance on the impact that moving start times later might have on transportation and other relevant concerns. She said that, among the hundreds of schools that eventually adopted later start times, only two reverted back to their original ones.
In both cases, it was because they had made the decision too fast, Wahlstrom said. For instance, in a district where the superintendent and board decided in June for an August change, that didn’t give parents enough time to adjust work schedules and other changes to their routines. “Parents stormed the board,” Wahlstrom said.
Sometimes the answer to an existing problem can be found by examining it in a new way. This logic can apply to transportation issues.
“As opposed to trying to retrofit the new schedule into the pre-existing one, they [school officials] should be thinking of starting from scratch,” Payne said. “I’ve seen outside consultants help by bringing novel ideas to the table that maybe haven’t been considered, because we as humans do get stuck.”
This could take a variety of forms, from “flipping” the start times of a district’s younger and older students, whereby younger students start earlier and older kids start later, to more complex solutions involving sophisticated computer-generated algorithms that reconfigure bus routes and start times.
“The real challenge,” Payne said, “is that it’s different than what we’re used to doing.”
