California lawmakers vote to delay school start times to students to get more sleep

[Igel]

18. The start times will be staggered.

If the high schoolers start at 8:30 that means middle school will start at 9:30 or later, elementary school kids at 7:30 or a bit earlier.

If the middle school kids start at 8:30, then the high school kids start at 9:30 and get out of school at 5, meaning the buses (and high schoolers who drive themselves) are in rush hour traffic. They'd get home 5:30 to 6:00 pm. (That'll eat into their income, for sure. And encourage them stay up late when their parents go to bed early. And require that they get themselves off to school--both middle and high schoolers, for the most part.)

The alternative is rather brutal. Three sets of buses, with capital costs and upkeep. Three times as many bus drivers, but they're each half-time. It's bus costs that drive a lot of the timing. (That, and the fact that young kids are fine in the early morning, it's teens that have a biological push to stay up late to mate and then sleep in.)

If we make everybody start school after 8 a.m., then some kids'll be getting home close to 7 pm. Which would be in the dark for a decent part of the year.