Dear Future President,

We need later start times for kids in high school and middle school for the following reasons. “60% of kids under the age of 18 complained of being tired during the day, 15% said they fell asleep during class (pg 1, National Sleep Foundation).” The kids most affected by this are ages 12-18 because that area is where you grow the most. I believe this issue should be a priority because kids are the future of this country and we are the ones that are going to fix global problems and if we don’t get a quality education because of early school start times this could affect how the country functions in the future.

As an 8th grade student we have enough to deal with, all the extra homework, after school activities, and then on top of that we have to wake up early and we are expected to do well in school. All of my friends complain about waking up early and talk about how they almost fall asleep in their first classes of the day. "Over time, sleep deprivation leads to serious consequences for academic achievement, social behavior, and the health and safety of our nation's youth," (the Congresswoman pg 1) This matters because most kids do suffer from sleep deprivation because of extra homework, I personally have about 3 hours of homework each night, maybe more, and with extra curricular activities it can be 10:30 or 11:00 before I get to bed, therefore I only get up to 7 hours of sleep. In addition, to some kids might be to tired to do their best and that can result in bad grades and behavior. “documented the positive effects of school start time delay in over 9000 students from eight high schools in three states, including improved grades and standardized test scores (dr. kayla wahlstrom, pg 1)”. This matters because most schools don’t understand the impact it will do if you just change the start times to an hour later. If this happens it will result in higher grades and higher quality school work. In conclusion if schools start later there will be a big impact.

I understand that this might result in later after school activities because of the school day ending later, but isn’t it worth it for kids to have a better education. Most kids do participate in after school activities and yes they might start later because schools want to get in the full 8 hours, but we still have to consider that it is hard to participate in activities when you can barley get through the school day without falling asleep. “If school gets out later, some athletes might be required to leave class early in order to attend a match. In this case, students may have to choose between a game and a test, a choice no student should have to make.( sleepfoundation.org, pg 2)” This matters because kids shouldn’t have to chose between them but the kids can always do the test or in class work another day or even at home. If you have to skip your sport to attend a lesson or test it is not that big of a deal if it only happens every once in a while your not going to have special events everyday after school. As you can see there are obstacles in this plan but they are all fixable and the reward the kids will get is worth it.

To prevent this issue we should make it a requirement to have schools start at 8:30 am or later. This connects to the UN because it could help support it because kids will learn more by being more awake therefore making kids learn how to fix these problems. This the global goal good health the most because kids grow the most in their teenage years and they need to sleep to continue the normal growth cycle. This is a priority because kids our the future of our country and they should have a quality education so we can meet the goals we have set for this country.

This is an example of how tired kids can be by missing just a few hours of sleep.