Miami Area School Kids May Get To Sleep Longer Next Year

MIAMI, FL — School bells may be ringing a little later next year around Miami as school officials confirmed Thursday they are considering various options to give the county's sleep-deprived kids more zzz's.

Miami-Dade schools chief Alberto M. Carvalho told reporters district officials recently surveyed about 1,800 students. Most of those surveyed were students in the district's middle and senior high schools.

"About 80 percent of them declared that they were feeling lethargic, tired, fatigued early in the morning — not getting enough sleep," the superintendent explained.

The Miami-Dade School Board gave its approval to explore options for creating a new bell schedule that better considers the health needs of students while increasing transportation access to high-demand choice programs across Miami-Dade County Public Schools. The initiative was proposed by School Board Member Martin Karp and approved by the board.

Carvalho said a later start time would be more efficient and could potentially save the district millions in transportation costs.

"The time configuration of those routes right now is quite compressed," he said of district school bus routes. "It we move it down a bit as we are proposing to do, the utilization of the buses becomes actually more efficient."

District officials insist sleep is a vital, often neglected, component of every person's overall health and well-being, particularly in the case of students, whose sleep needs are driven by a temporary biological shift in sleep onset and wake times that occurs between puberty and early adulthood.

"Early school start times run counter to this biological condition and can contribute substantially to adolescent sleep deprivation," district officials asserted.

The district has already had some schools experiment with later start times. The initial findings are that students reported having higher energy and were more alert.

The current district start times range from 7:20 a.m. for high school students to 9:10 a.m. for middle schoolers.

Elementary school pupils have two start times: 8:20 a.m. for pre-K to first grade and 8:35 a.m. for elementary and K-8 centers.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that middle and high schools start no earlier than 8:30 a.m. Potential bell schedule alternatives include options for starting all grade levels at 8 a.m. or later.

District officials plan to use surveys, focus groups and town hall meetings to gauge public attitudes toward such a change.

Carvalho plans to bring a recommendation to the board by spring of 2020 for potential implementation during the 2020-2021 school year.

"We've done our part, the research," Carvalho said. "Now the community has got to meet up with us, provide their opinion because we recognize that the impact is going to be on the stakeholders, the parents, the business leaders, police entities throughout the community."