Carmel Unified School District exempt from state law, will not be starting later - KSBW Monterey
CARMEL-BY-THE-SEA, Calif. —
Next year, school districts across California will be implementing later start times for high schools and middle schools, per a new state law intended to help kids get more sleep. Carmel Unified School District will not be one of them.
Senate Bill 328, passed in 2019, dictates that middle schools cannot start before 8 a.m. and high schools before 8:30 a.m. Carmel Unified School District's middle and high schools start at 7:45 a.m.
Rural school districts, like CUSD, are exempt from this new law.
A school district is designated as rural if: (1) The school district or charter school is located in a county with a total population of 70,000 people or fewer. (2) The school district receives assistance from the federal Universal Service E-rate program, which provides discounts for telecommunications services. (3) The school district or charter school is eligible to receive grants under the federal Small, Rural School Achievement program.
According to Superintendent Ted Knight, CUSD is designated as rural under the Universal Service E-rate program. He also stresses the districts reach into rural parts of Monterey County, including Big Sur and Cachagua, which are both about 40 minutes away.
"We know the science is solid. We know if we all get more sleep, we're all going to be healthy. Unfortunately, those trade-offs are quite severe and mainly for a lot of our marginalized populations. For many places, if you change the start times, you have to add transportation which is more buses, more drivers, or you have to swap elementary and later start times," Knight said.
"I believe the research on the implications on later start times are still in their early stages. I believe we're still the only state in the union to pass this. There are other districts who have tried this. The district where I just came from, we did this study a couple of years ago. We found that ... if kids can get more sleep, they'll be healthier. But logistically, it was very difficult to figure out ... Do we want to move to later start times if it just works for some students and not all students?"
According to some parents, the push for later start times predates the new law and has been an ongoing concern at school board meetings.
"If studies weren't there, I would just say, 'You need to get up. This is what I did when I was a child, and now you have to do it and it's OK,'" Lovina Worick, a parent of three, said. "But when the studies came out it changed my complete perspective, and I think their sleep needs to come first, especially given the mental health issues we're going through ... locally and as a country. That should be number one."
The discussion for later start times in schools is over a decade old, with many advocates citing adolescent sleep deprivation as a public health issue.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, adolescent sleep deprivation can lead to declines in academic success and an increased risk of drug and alcohol use, and the development of mood disorders like clinical depression.
Carmel Unified School District said they will send a survey to parents and revisit a possible schedule change in the future.
source: https://www.ksbw.com/article/carmel-unified-school-district-exempt-from-state-law-will-not-be-starting-later/39790370
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