Do you feel more refreshed and ready for school when we have one of our many two-hour delays this winter?

Do you think 7:30 is too early to be at school in the morning?

If so, you aren’t alone; many counties in Maryland are pushing for the establishment of later start times for high schools. Supporters of this movement propose that elementary school and high school start times actually switch places.

The reason? Supporters are citing studies which conclude that small children are more awake and ready to learn in the early morning hours, while teenagers don’t fully function until later in the morning.

An example of the effort to delay school openings can be seen in Anne Arundel County, where Kari Oakes and Heather Macintosh founded School Start Later Anne Arundel County, MD. Two initiatives have been made by the Board to be examined this year.

One of those is to assign a Superintendent’s task force to overlook and discuss economic costs and benefits of starting school later in the morning. The other initiative is to administer a survey that asks for input on whether high schools should start at 7:30. It also pushes back all schools by at least 13 minutes.

Many other counties are considering the possibility of changing school start times. Should Harford County be one of them?

More to come on this article–let us know what you think on Twitter @ahsblueandgold!