Later school start times for teenagers

School start times are a hot issue these days. Particularly, letting teenagers start school later, to match their natural pattern of sleeping in later than younger kids. This report is about a survey done at the University of Michigan where researchers asked parents how they felt about later school start times. Below is a figure from the report that shows some of the results of the survey.

Most of the parents (88%) said their teens currently have a start time before 8:30 a.m. Among these parents, 27% of parents would support a school start of 8:30 a.m. or later only if it did not impact the school budget, and 24% would support a later start time regardless of impact on the school budget. Less than one-half (49%) of the parents do not support a later school start time.