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Lancaster County district latest in midstate to shift school start times

  • Rachel McDevitt/StateImpact Pennsylvania
In this Thursday, Sept. 14, 2017 photo buses await students at York Middle School in York, Maine. A shortage of school bus drivers in some communities in New England and across the country is causing headaches for school districts this fall.

 Robert F. Bukaty / AP Photo

In this Thursday, Sept. 14, 2017 photo buses await students at York Middle School in York, Maine. A shortage of school bus drivers in some communities in New England and across the country is causing headaches for school districts this fall.

(Harrisburg) — A school district in Lancaster County is the latest to shift school start times later.

The board for Ephrata Area School District recently approved a plan to push back the start of the school day by about 45 minutes for middle and high school students. It will take effect in the fall.

Superintendent Brian Troop says the move should better accommodate teens’ sleep needs.

Last year, district leaders decided to take a closer look at research into teen sleep patterns to see if class start and end times lined up with it.

Because of the physical changes teenagers are going through, it can be hard to fall asleep early.

A district survey found 80 percent of students don’t get the recommended 8-10 hours of sleep on school nights.

“We thought, why are we having them come in so early when we know that for many of our teen students, it’s very difficult to get to sleep at a normal time,” Troop said.

He added increased sleep is shown to have a positive effect on mood, physical health, and overall productivity.

“We think setting our kids up for success every day by giving them an opportunity to get more of their needed sleep, we felt like that was a shift that would be beneficial to our students and worth going through to make happen for next year,” Troop said.

About 25 districts across the state have pushed back class start times, including Antietam School District in Berks County and Mechanicsburg Area and South Middleton school districts in Cumberland County.

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