Join LWVN members on Wednesday, March 9th, from 11:30 to 1 pm in the NewTV Conference Room on Needham Street, for our next topic meeting. We will talk about ideas to address the discrepancy between the amount of sleep Newton teens get and how much they need to be successful.
Studies show that an average adolescent needs between 8 ½ and 9 ½ hours of sleep per night to do their best in school and activities. According to recent surveys of our own students in Newton, 80% of Newton South High School respondents said they get less than 7 hours of sleep a night. Also, 80% of respondents said that lack of sleep affects their academic performance.
Over 70 school districts (1,000 schools) in the country have moved to a later high school start time. In the past 5 years, there has been increased conversation and consideration of start times across the country. In addition, the American Pediatric Association issued a recommendation in 2014 that middle and high schools should not start before 8:30 am.
The Newton School Council is currently examining what a later high school start would look like in Newton and how it could be implemented. Chris Steele and Risa Shames of the Newton South School Council will present the information they have gathered on the topic, and Ruth Goldman of the School Committee will discuss the ongoing work of the Late School Start Time Working Group.