High School Start Times Changing to 8:30

AUSTIN HERNANDEZ Copy Editor

California has become the first state to require high schools to start no earlier than 8:30 a.m. and middle schools to start at 8:00 a.m. California Governor Gavin Newsom signed the bill on Oct. 13. 

AUSD has said it is still too early to tell when the new start times will be implemented in the district, but the law states that schools must change the times by the 2022-2023 school year at the latest. 

According to the Los Angeles Times, the time change would have to be introduced slowly so that students, parents and teachers could adjust to the change. Some schools could change to the new times as early as the fall of the 2020-2021 school year, depending on a variety of factors. One reason behind the change is that it is considered more helpful for students’ overall health and focus.

 “Since I usually sleep around the same time, having this later start time would let me sleep in more… to help me feel less tired during my classes,” junior Celia Xu said. However, some argue that students will just go to sleep even later since they start later.

San Diego Unified has already tried the new times for the past few years. It was reported that the new start time worked for the first year of implementation, but that students fell back into their bad habits the following year. 

“Maybe schools could expand the zero

period to help accommodate students that need to get to school earlier because of their parents,” history teacher Travis Corona said.

 The law will be a drastic change to almost everyone, parent, teacher or student but the governor hopes that the change will help students improve.