Jeffco Schools Start Time Task Force

Report to the Board of Education

February 7, 2019

Contents

Synopsis, Purpose and Charge Error! Bookmark not defined.

Task Force Timeline 3

Scientific Consensus 4

Task Force Work 5 Research & Communications 5 Presentation to State Legislative Start Time Interim Committee 5

Current Jeffco Schools Start Times 6-7 High School Start Times 6 Middle School Start Times 7

Community Survey Methodology and Results 8

Start Time Task Force Recommendations to the Board of Education 221

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Synopsis Research shows that earlier school start times (before 8:30 AM) is a key factor in adolescents’ lack of sleep because it disrupts their circadian rhythm. The Jeffco Schools Start Time Task Force was created to align instructional practices and learning environments with evidence-based best practices and physiological needs for students. This work is also in alignment with Board Policy ADF – School Wellness, and Board Policy IHAM – Health Education. The task force was charged with exploring later start times while taking into consideration impacts on the community’s diverse population and geographic area. With these impacts in mind, the start time task force recommends starting high schools on or after 8:30 a.m.

Task Force Purpose Jeffco Public Schools wishes to align instructional practices and learning environments with evidence-based best practices and physiological needs for students. The district also wishes to remain fiscally responsible, provide equitable access to athletics and activities, and to support our students in a variety of extra-curricular and community endeavors. Toward, that end, the district hereby establishes a School Start Time Task Force (Task Force) to hold a representative community conversation regarding school start and end times. Task Force Charge The Task Force is charged with holding balanced and representative discussions related to the possibility of altering secondary school start times to later in the day. The Task Force shall also consider the complexities of such a decision and what impact it might have on areas such as student transportation, elementary and preschool start times, staff impact, athletics and activities, and impacts on the community workforce. The Task Force shall use a consensus-based process to arrive at a set of recommendations to be presented to the Superintendent early in the spring of 2019.

Task Force Timeline

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● Spring 2016 to Fall 2017 - Evergreen area parents engage with Community

Superintendent Dan Cohan on the possibility of later start times later in mountain area schools

● September 2017— Jeffco Parent Jenna Bannon asks Dr. Glass on social media to meet with parents to discuss later start times

● February 12, 2018—Dr. Glass hosts Jeffco Start Time Information Night

● March 5, 2018—Task Force applications due

● April 5, 2018—Task Force Members notified

● May 21, 2018—Task Force Kickoff Meeting

● August 27, 2018—Task Force Chairs and Dan Cohan met with Jeffco Schools

cabinet

● August 31, 2018—Jeffco Task Force presents to State Legislative Start Time Interim Committee

● September 2018 to January 2019— Jeffco Schools Start Time Task Force met

monthly

● January 10, 2019—Task Force Chairs discussed preliminary recommendations with Jeffco Schools Superintendent Jason Glass; Chief of Schools, Secondary Kristopher Schuh; Chief of Schools, Elementary Karen Quanbeck; and Community Superintendent Dan Cohan

● February 7, 2019- Jeffco Start Times Task Force presents final recommendations to Jeffco Schools Board of Education

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Scientific Consensus Research supports the benefits of later start times for adolescents. An 8:30am or later start time for adolescents is recommended by the National Sleep Foundation, American Academy of Pediatrics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National PTA, and American Medical Association. The following is a brief summary of findings and recommendations. Please visit the Task Force web site for a more detailed literature review. American Academy of Pediatrics “The American Academy of Pediatrics recognizes insufficient sleep in adolescents as an important public health issue that significantly affects the health and safety, as well as the academic success, of our nation’s middle and high school students. Although a number of factors, including biological changes in sleep associated with puberty, lifestyle choices, and academic demands, negatively affect middle and high school students’ ability to obtain sufficient sleep, the evidence strongly implicates earlier school start times (i.e., before 8:30 AM) as a key modifiable contributor to insufficient sleep, as well as circadian rhythm disruption, in this population. Furthermore, a substantial body of research has now demonstrated that delaying school start times is an effective countermeasure to chronic sleep loss and has a wide range of potential benefits to students with regard to physical and mental health, safety, and academic achievement. The American Academy of Pediatrics strongly supports the efforts of school districts to optimize sleep in students and urges high schools and middle schools to aim for start times that allow students the opportunity to achieve optimal levels of sleep (8.5–9.5 hours) and to improve physical (e.g., reduced obesity risk) and mental (e.g., lower rates of depression) health, safety (e.g., drowsy driving crashes), academic performance, and quality of Life.”

American Academy of Pediatrics, School Start Times for Adolescents, August 2014

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Task Force Work

Research & Communications Fifty community members were selected to participate and represent Jeffco articulation areas on the task force. The task force conducted background research on other communities who had similar challenges to Jeffco, for example, providing transportation to a diverse and large geographic area, after school sports, and child care. We gathered information relevant to Jeffco from other school districts documentation and web sites. We also reviewed post-implementation findings (example: while transportation costs increased, lower costs were seen from fewer disciplinary actions, improved student mental health, and enhanced district ratings and reputation) and learned about start time changes happening both in and out of Colorado. The task force’s progress and findings were regularly reported on:

● Jeffco Task Force Website, as well as Task Force managed Google Site ● Chalkbeat, Jeffco Takes a Collaborative Approach as it considers later school

start times. July 2018.

Presentation to State Legislative Start Time Interim Committee On August 31, 2018, the Start Time Task Force, along with Montezuma Cortez, Denver, Cherry Creek, 27J/Brighton and Jeffco school districts presented information, by invitation, to the State Legislative Start Time Interim Committee. Other presenters included Dr. Lisa Meltzer from National Jewish Health on the importance of later start times. The goal of the legislative interim committee was to learn more about school start times and to hear from Colorado school districts about changes to school start times. The Colorado Legislature Interim Committee Start Time website is here.

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Current Jeffco Schools Start Times High School Start Times Among Jefferson County high schools, Long View High School currently follows the recommendations from the National Sleep Foundation, American Academy of Pediatrics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National PTA, and American Medical Association that secondary schools start no earlier than 8:30 AM. Please see all current Jeffco start times here. Current Jeffco High School Start Times

Middle School Start Times

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Jefferson County middle schools have variable start times, but over half of Jeffco middle schools start before 8:00 a.m. and only Jeffco Open School and Connections Learning Center start after 8:30 AM. Please see all current Jeffco start times here. Current Jeffco Middle School Start Times

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Community Survey Methodology and Results Methodology The Jeffco School Start Time Task Force formulated and conducted a community survey from November 16, which was open through December 2, 2018. The intent was to learn how the community felt about starting high school later, and to determine what trade-offs people were willing to make to achieve later start times. The survey was open to any member of the Jeffco community, mainly directed towards parents and staff, and was promoted via Chalk Talk, the Start Time Task Force Facebook page, and Task Force web sites. The survey was also available in Spanish. 4,254 community members responded, the majority of which were self-reported Jeffco parents and/or Jeffco faculty and staff.

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K-12 parents were well represented in the survey

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There was a large response to the community survey from Bear Creek, Columbine, Evergreen, Golden, Green Mountain, and Ralston Valley High School parents. Which high school does your student attend or will they attend when old enough?

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Survey respondents support changing school start times. 79% of respondents indicated that it is “very important” and “somewhat important” to pursue starting high schools later. 77% responded that it was important for middle schools to start later as well.

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Every high school articulation area had 62% or greater support for shifting start times. Several articulation area responses were close to 90% favorable.

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44% of respondents were in favor of a district wide change.

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How Families Would be Affected The survey included several questions to determine what other changes families would be willing to make to allow for later start times. Questions included details about transportation, as well as commitments outside of school. These questions were difficult to answer without more precise details and specifics about the person(s) circumstances. For example, in the open comments, people wanted to know if bus stop location would change. Families were open to busing changes, but not as open to eliminating bussing for high school students. 77% of respondents indicated that there would either be no impact or a positive impact on their families if middle and elementary school students rode the bus together. 74% reported no impact/positive impact if middle and high school students rode the bus together. There was less flexibility regarding eliminating busing for high school students. 32% of survey respondents reported it would have a negative impact on their family and was not worth it to change start times. While 22% reported that travelling further (outside of neighborhood) to get to the bus stop would have a negative impact and was not worth the change, another 22% said that this would have a negative impact but was worth it to change start times. 53% said it would have no impact.

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Jeffco Schools Transportation district-wide bus ridership is 54% of eligible riders. Source: Colorado Department of Education Report 2017-2018

Eligible Actual

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Total 22,982 12,363

Central 6,362 3,214

North 5,542 3,503

South 6,306 2,782

West 4,772 2,864

Jeffco Schools Transportation High School bus ridership is 26% of eligible riders. Source: Colorado Department of Education Report 2017-2018

Eligible Actual

Total 9,615 2,543*

Central 2,274 528

North 2,813 561

South 2,681 602

West 1,847 852

*Approximately 600 riders are special education students who received mandated transportation. 45% of survey respondents support reasonable allocation of funds from individual school budgets to change school start times

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The majority of respondents did not feel their family would be impacted with regards to after school child care, sports, activities, jobs, family obligations, childcare or coordination of drop off/pick up schedules. 88% said there would be a positive or no impact on their sleep schedules if middle/high school start times were later. Some respondents selected “negative impact & not worth it” for all categories, including after school child care, sports, activities, jobs, family obligations, childcare or coordination of drop off/pick up schedules. After school child care and childcare for younger children provided by older siblings was less of a concern than other after school responsibilities, jobs, activities and sports. Respondents said later start times would still be worth it but would negatively impact sports (21%), fitting in job or family responsibilities (12%), and coordinating drop off or pick up of children (10%).

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60% of respondents choose 8:00 a.m. or later as the earliest acceptable start time for elementary schools.

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72% of respondents chose 8:00 a.m. or later as the earliest acceptable start time for middle schools.

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74% of respondents chose 8:00 a.m. or later as the earliest acceptable start time for high schools.

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Start Time Task Force Recommendations to the Board of Education 1. Establish Jeffco Schools Board of Education policy that beginning in Fall 2020 all Jefferson County Schools will start school on or after:

● Middle School: 8:00 AM ● High School: 8:30 AM

Note: While the task force prefers that no school starts before 8:30am, recommended times have also taken into consideration feedback from the Jeffco community.

2. Hire an Implementation Firm/Consultant in the Spring of 2019 to begin the process of researching and planning the implementation of the recommended start times. This Firm/Consultant should:

• Resolve issues with district provided transportation • Address considerations for after-school activities, including athletics • Examine staffing issues • Involve the Jeffco community, Jeffco Schools staff members, and Start Time

Task Force throughout the planning and implementation process • Create a roll-out plan, to include:

– An implementation timeline – Processes for future start time changes – Effective and consistent community communication through the change

process – Standards/expectations to evaluate and monitor changes, including any

impacts on students and community

3. As an interim step, have all Jeffco Schools start a half hour later for the 2019-2020 school year. Shift all current school schedules a half hour (30 minutes) later than they are currently, starting August 2019.

Note: Exceptions may be granted based on individual school circumstances.

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