SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – California high school and middle school students have reason to celebrate as their classes will begin later this fall following a new law.
California legislators are delaying classes at all public high schools and middle schools due to a law that went into effect on July 1, originally passed in 2019.
The law, added to the California Education Code under Section 46148, requires middle schools to begin no earlier than 8 a.m. and high schools no earlier than 8:30 a.m., including those that operate as charter schools.
Proponents of the law cite the importance of sleep for teenagers as a driving factor to push classes later. School districts are encouraged to inform their communities about the impact of chronic sleep deprivation and the benefits of a later school start time.
"Asking a teenager to be awake and trying to absorb information at 8:30 in the morning in some ways is like asking an adult to wake up at 4 o'clock in the morning," Matthew Walker, a University of California, Berkeley, neuroscience professor, told NPR.
Other schools across the country have also implemented similar requirements in the past. In 2016, Seattle's public school district shifted its start time, leading to students getting around half an hour more sleep, the New York Times reported. A Denver suburb also followed suit, allowing high schoolers to enjoy 45 minutes more of rest per night.
School districts are still allowed to offer classes or activities to students that start before the beginning of a school day, so long as they do not have an average number of pupils attending.
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