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Pilot Program to Assess Value of Later Start Times in NJ High Schools Receives Final Legislative Approval

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the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, As New Jersey high schools continue to rank top in the nation, legislators are hoping to encourage even better academic outcomes with more emphasis on student health. Given the connection between more sleep and improved academic performance, Assemblywomen Mila Jasey, Valerie Vainieri Huttle and Carol Murphy have sponsored legislation to assess how pushing back high school start times to 8.30am could be beneficial. The bill was given final legislative passage by a 72-0-3 vote in the full Assembly Thursday.

The bill (A-4865) establishes a four-year pilot program to study the issues, benefits and options for implementing later start times across New Jersey high schools. To participate, school districts would submit an application to the Commissioner of Education. Five schools would then be selected so as to represent the northern, central and southern regions of the state as well as a combination of urban, suburban and rural areas.

“Teens are operating on too little sleep to the detriment of their physical, social, emotional and ultimately academic well-being,” said Jasey (D-Essex, Morris). “With later school start times, students could get a little more sleep giving them just the extra boost they need for success. It’s a strategy that has great potential to work in our largely diverse state and merits our attention.”

The primary goal of the bill will be to assess how later school start times function in the context of New Jersey, and to see its effect on reducing tardiness and absenteeism. While research has broadly articulated positive effects of a later start in the morning, this legislation would also serve to identify any negative implications of the policy before any pursuit of statewide implementation.

“Our school schedules should reflect the needs of our students,” said Vainieri Huttle (D-Bergen). “So often, our children are attending school on far less sleep than what is medically recommended. This pilot program will give us a deeper understanding of how a later start to the school day may impact students – especially in regards to academic performance. This legislation is supported by advocates and experts alike, including the American Academy of Pediatrics.”

“The purpose of school and education is to maximize human potential,” said Murphy (D-Burlington). “When students are not well rested they aren’t showing up to school in best mindset to learn. For that reason, it’s imperative we take on task of pinpointing feasible ways to better meet the needs of our teens. If changing high school start times by an hour makes a difference, it’s an avenue we definitely need to explore.”

3 thoughts on “Pilot Program to Assess Value of Later Start Times in NJ High Schools Receives Final Legislative Approval

  1. They won’t get any more sleep. They’ll just get to sleep later. This is a non-issue. Focus on hiring teachers who won’t bore them to tears or victimize boys for sport. One RHS teacher who shall remain nameless wedges all students into one tortuous, infantile, mind-numbing, enthusiasm-draining, and horribly time-wasting way of absorbing the subject matter, week after week. That’s not leadership or inspired instruction. RHS deserves better and its administrators need to learn how to demand improvement.

  2. It’s all OK.
    At least NJ will be teaching Gay History starting in 2020.

    https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/2019/02/01/nj-schools-teach-lgbt-history-new-law/2743028002/

    “New Jersey has become the second state in the nation after California to adopt a law that requires schools to teach about LGBT history…
    Under the measure, public schools must include lessons about the political, economic and social contributions of individuals who are gay and transgender, starting in the 2020-21 school year…
    The law does not apply to private schools.”

  3. Surely there are some individuals in this country who are or were dedicated and enthusiastically practicing Satanists who wrote a catchy tune, rescued a cat from a tree, or, say, held high office in government or even (ahem…Chicago’s Cardinal Bernadin) in the Catholic church. When will they receive their recognition as an important constitutive group in our society, and their concomitant slice, however slender, of the grammar, middle and high school school year committed toward indoctrinating our children? /s

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