NEW JERSEY (1010 WINS) — Lawmakers in New Jersey are proposing a bill that would prohibit early start times for high schoolers in the state beginning in the 2024-2025 school year.
The proposal, which would mandate classes start no earlier than 8:30 a.m., comes after concerns over mental health issues for students heightened by the pandemic.
The average start time in New Jersey schools is 7:51 a.m. compared to the 8 a.m. national average, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
The bill's co-sponsors, Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin and Senator Vin Gopal, said two years in a pandemic has caused children’s mental health to worsen which affects educational outcomes.
“Mental health studies have shown that a child's sleep is a big part of their productivity during the day,” Gopal told WCBS 880. “We've already seen a number of school districts already start this and it's worked pretty well.”
Gopal added that many school districts have already begun to implement the practice on their own, cutting minutes off school periods, for example, to only extend the day by about 25 minutes.
“They basically cut every period a minute and two minutes and the lunch period a couple minutes and it actually increased the overall productivity in the day,” Gopal explained.
Chatham and Basking Ridge are just two school districts that have already changed start times and have seen good results, Gopal said, adding that the bill already has support and lawmakers want to ensure schools have enough time to make proper adjustments if the bill passes.
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