The Severna Park Patch community will be pleased to know that while this story is gaining national attention, it was first scooped by Severna Park Patch! Early school starts are plaguing many school districts across the country and Severna Park led the way. WTG!

Way to go Terra Snider who began this effort and keeps on going with it. You are my hero.

We just hit 1000 names! Thanks again to everyone who has supported this effort so far, and to Leslie Hunt, who recognized the importance of this issue from day one. Now let's just hope we can keep the momentum going. If we get the 5000 names we were originally targeting, we're taking this petition to Washington and presenting it in person!

The Patch network rocks! We're getting coverage all over the country now, most recently in Sammamish, WA: http://sammamish.patch.com/articles/national-petition-for-later-high-school-start-times-gets-local-attention-00d65163# . I'm convinced that the key to addressing this issue is bringing together the many isolated groups that have been working, usually futilely, on this issue for years, even decades. Despite the many powerful forces that too often work against the kids' best interests in local school systems, there are also obviously huge numbers of parents, teachers, students, health professionals, researchers, and others who desperately want change--and now we finally have a chance to come together to make it happen.

Could later school start times improve academic performance? Our homegrown petition and the national coalition it's spawning are mentioned in this new article from Sleeping Resources: http://sleepingresources.com/could-later-school-start-times-improve-academic-performance/ So exciting!

The Cleveland (TN) school board just decided to start all schools later by 30-35 minutes next year for the sake of the kids: http://www.clevelandbanner.com/view/full_story/16666609/article-City-classrooms-set-for-later-start-in-day?instance=latest_articles . If they can do it, why can't we?

Wow Terra, that is huge news. I'll be bringing the petition back to the front in the near future.

A study of first-year U.S. Air Force Academy students showed that those starting classes before 8 a.m. performed worse not only in their first-period courses but in all their courses. Citing that study, as well as the new Brookings study showing how penny wise, pound foolish it is to send our teens to school in the dark, the School Committee in Amherst, MA is considering changing start times from 7:45 to 9 am starting next year. Meanwhile, here in Anne Arundel County we still begin all high schols at the absurd hour of 7:17 a.m. When are we going to wake up?

The Air Force study showed that starting the school day just 50 minutes later was roughly equivalent to raising teacher quality by one standard deviation. Here's the link to the study if you want the details: http://www.econ.ucdavis.edu/faculty/scarrell/sleep.pdf.

Wow! This Patch piece from Wisconsin not only cites our petition for later start time ( http://bit.ly/tWa4dS ) but shows why we need to set a sane, humane bottom limit on how early schools can start! While some school systems seem to be listening to what compelling research has shown (not to mention common sense), others clearly don't care. This one is amazingly proposing starting high schools EARLIER - for the same reasons AACPS started them earlier many years ago. Now, however, it's worse, given the body of evidence today. This school system actually acknowledges that starting high school so early isn't good for teens's health, safety, or learning! http://menomoneefalls.patch.com/articles/school-start-times-debated-locally-and-nationally