We are just over one month into the Jefferson County Public School year, and despite a comparatively smoother start with regards to transportation than in 2023, for many families, including my own, this has without a doubt been the roughest start to any school year yet.
My children attend Bloom Elementary, a wonderful school with an unfortunate start time of 7:30 a.m. This is 10 minutes earlier than last year’s start time, and over 1 1/2 hours earlier than in the 2022-2023 school year and earlier years, when most JCPS elementary schools started at 9:05 a.m. This is a huge difference that is felt in our household every day.
At this early hour with two small children, I am completely sincere when I say that every minute counts. Our mornings start with a 6:15 a.m. wake-up, by 7:15 a.m. after a quick breakfast that everyone is too sleepy to eat, we are on the way to school for 7:30 a.m. drop-off as the sun is barely starting to rise. In the afternoons, I rush to make the midday pickup time of 2:10 p.m., by which time everyone is already exhausted. By 5:00 p.m., my partner is home and we are eating dinner by 5:30 p.m. in an attempt to get everyone to bed at an early enough hour for the sleep they need—an impossible feat. It is still light outside for at least another hour after we close the blackout curtains and say goodnight; sleep is elusive.
School start times are a big issue for JCPS parents
School start times have been a central topic in JCPS Board of Education meetings over the past couple of years, as the Board has come up with various proposals to work around the district-wide bus driver shortage . The Board landed on the current start times in May 2024 as a band-aid resolution to this problem and a partial attempt to shift middle and high schools to later start times —a response to research showing the negative impact of early start times on teens and adolescents. The start time scenario that passed in the May 2024 meeting only partially addressed this concern , and the Board was tasked with returning with a proposal to move all middle and high schools to later start times by Dec. 1.
Early start times hurt elementary school kids too
But what has been largely ignored, both in Board meetings that I have observed and in the media coverage around them, is the impact of the earliest start times on JCPS’ youngest learners and their families. While it is certainly true that research shows adolescents benefit from a later morning schedule , there are parallel studies showing that early start times for elementary students cause similar behavioral and emotional problems and a decline in attendance and academic performance . Peggy S. Keller, a UK department of psychology professor, found in her research published by the APA that policy changes that move elementary schools to earlier start times in favor of later starts for middle and high school students “ may simply be shifting the problem from adolescents to younger children .”
These studies point to a lack of sleep among children of all ages who attend schools with start times before 8:30 a.m. According to the AAP and the AASM (American Academy of Sleep Science), children aged 6-12 years need 9-12 hours of sleep at night, with 5-year-olds needing 10-13 hours. Without sufficient sleep , kids are at an increased risk of injuries, hypertension, obesity, diabetes and depression among other mental and physical health problems.
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Another huge concern introduced by early elementary start times is the tremendous burden on families of elementary-aged students to find and fund childcare during the hours between pickup and the end of the workday. For me, this has meant a delay in going back to work full time. For others, it means tacking on after school care programs, making for even longer days for young kids and a higher cost of living for families struggling with an already inflated economy. And for many schools, including Bloom Elementary, the surge in enrollment in after school care has meant an end to many extra-curricular activities, such as drama and dance clubs, for lack of space in the school to run these programs. Longer days at school also mean less family time at home, a sacrifice that comes with its own set of negative impacts on children’s development.
These are not isolated issues, nor are they personal problems. The JCPS Board is tasked with creating systems and processes to support students and families in the district and simply put, it has failed us. The challenges faced by the Board are significant. There are not enough bus drivers and students must get to school on time. The solution cannot be to sacrifice the health of our students and the livelihood of families.
Julie Morris is a mother of two JCPS students, and a freelance Publishing Consultant living in Louisville.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Opinion: The start to this JCPS school year has been the roughest one yet
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