The Seattle School Board is considering a plan that could lead to teenagers and tweens being more rested and ready to learn. A proposal is going before the board which calls for a later start time for middle schools and high schools.
Diane Casper has two teenage daughters who have to get up early to make it to their first classes at Ingraham High School which start at 7:50 a.m. Casper is part of a coalition of parents, teachers and doctors who have spent the last four years pushing for later start times for older students.
Casper says ever since her children made the switch to early mornings back when they started middle school, they have been “grumpier.” “[They have been] much more reactive to things than they would be in the summer when they’d go to programs that started at nine in the morning,” said Casper. “They would just say, ‘It’s night and day.’ Getting that extra sleep made life that easier and happier.”