The Centers for Disease Control says less than one in five middle and high school students is starting the school day late enough for optimal learning and health.
The Monroe County Consolidated School Corporation recently announced it will push start times back by at least 20 minutes for all of its students starting in August.
But that's still not as late as most experts recommend.
MCCSC Students Up Before The Sun
It's 6:45 a.m. and Georgie Stevens' Bloomington neighborhood is pitch black. A few lights line the street, but you can barely see her standing on the corner waiting for the bus.
"It's very, very dark out," says Gerogie's mom, Jenny Stevens. "And it really is pretty much pitch black from mid-November to mid-February."
The birds in the neighborhood seem to be more awake than the kids. They're out on the corner in time to catch a bus at 6:50 every day but Wednesday, when the school district has a late start.
"Our morning routine is our alarm goes off at six and even on the late day Wednesday she will keep her alarm at six," Jenny says.
She's happy her daughter's morning will start a little later.
MCCSC announced last month it will change school start times for all students.
At the elementary level, school will start at 9 instead of 8:35. Middle and high school students won't have their first classes until 8, instead of 7:40. And the school corporation is getting rid of late start days.
"I feel really good that they've moved it back to eight because I think just that extra 20 minutes will really be helpful," Jenny says.
Research Shows Starting School Later Could Improve Health, Achievement
MCCSC's new start times aren't quite what the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends.
In a 2014 policy statement, the organization said middle and high school students need 8.5 to 9.5 hours of sleep, so they shouldn't start school before 8:30 a.m.
According to U.S. Department of Education data from the 2011-2012 school year, more than 75 percent of Indiana's public schools started the day before 8:30 a.m.
In Ft. Wayne, elementary students start their days at 8:20 a.m., middle school starts at 7:20 a.m. and high school doesn't start until 9:05 a.m.
Indianapolis Public Schools start elementary school at 9 a.m. while the secondary schools kick off the day at 7:30 a.m.
"The CDC says that it has led to increases in the levels of obesity among teenagers, that it can increase rates of depression among those teenagers," says Indiana University Visiting Professor of Education Walter Burke. "There's some evidence that student achievement falls and isn't as high."
The problem is pushing start times back for all students is logistically almost impossible for most of Indiana's school corporations.
It would require larger bus fleets – something cash-strapped corporations can't afford.
"Transportation is also what prohibited us from saying, you know what, across the board all 11,000 students start at 8:30 a.m.," says MCCSC Public Relations and Information Officer Tim Pritchett. "That would be ideal if we could have everyone start at the same time. But very few corporations are able to do that."
The CDC says that is has led to increases in the levels of obesity among teenagers, that it can increase rates of depression among those teenagers.
So Monroe County came to what it considers a pretty good compromise.
And it's a decision the corporation spent years studying before implementing. They surveyed teachers to ask what they saw in their classrooms. And the overwhelming majority responded by saying students were fatigued.
"What we heard first of all and had been hearing consistently from our educators and our parents was that when we lengthened the day in 2011 for elementary kids, again an hour longer per day, and what we were hearing consistently was that hour was too long," Pritchett says. "That kids were exhausted at the end of the day, that it was difficult to keep their focus."
The school corporation is hopeful starting the day just a little bit later will have a positive impact on student achievement and health.
And the majority of parents see it as a positive change, too.
"I myself don't want to get up that early I like to get up between 7 and 7:15, so I miss the elementary days," Jenny says.
The change in start times at MCCSC starts in August.
