We reported in a previous post about Winston-Salem and Forsythe County schools starting later to enable kids to sleep better.
Now, North Kingstown schools will start later in the fall so that students can get the sleep they need.
Concerned about student performance, officials approved changes in timings so that the high school starts 25 minutes later this year. The School Committee Wednesday approved the new 7:30 a.m. start time, compared to the previous 7:05 start. Students will get out at 2 p.m.
Studies have shown that teenagers have different sleep patterns than adults, and often cannot fall asleep until after 11 p.m. In March, the National Sleep Foundation polled teenagers and found they were napping in class and feeling depressed -- all because they weren't getting enough sleep.
"Who can do math at 7 in the morning?" asked School Committee member Denise A. Coppa. A local study shows that first-period math students don't do as well as students in later classes, she said.
During a May School Committee meeting, more than a dozen students urged the committee to start school later. In the winter, students walk to school in the dark and slurp coffee to wake up, they said.
Middle school students will also start school 25 minutes later, at 8:30 a.m. The Forest Park and Quidnesset Elementary Schools will start 45 minutes later. At Davisville and Hamilton Elementary Schools, students will start school 10 minutes later.
Only students at the Stony Lane and Fishing Cove Elementary Schools will go to school at the same time as last year: 9:20 a.m.
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