Starting in the 2025-2026 school year, Pennsbury High School will put in place a later start time, shifting from its current 7:20 a.m. opening to around 8 a.m.
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Superintendent Dr. Thomas Smith made the announcement on Monday and said it is part of an effort to improve student well-being and academic performance.
Smith said: “We are targeting a change to the high school start time for September 2025 (approximately 17 months from now). The final high school start time is yet to be determined but will be around 8 a.m. As part of our plan to prepare for this change, we will spend the next 17 months sharing information and finalizing the logistics like transportation, athletics, and the high school schedule (specifically when the day will end).”
Smith told LevittownNow.com that the plan is to keep elementary school start times the same and the middle school start times will slightly move.
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The move aligns with trends across the nation where states like California and Florida have mandated later start times for public schools. The moves have gained bipartisan support.
Studies have shown that starting school later can help reduce juvenile crime, enhance academic and athletic performance, and lowered the incidence of crashes due to improved sleep.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that high schools not start before 8:30 a.m., citing that a schedule that better fits growing teens’ can reduce obesity risk and lower rates of depression.
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The average start time for U.S. public high schools was 8 a.m. during the 2017-2018 school year, according to a National Center for Education Statistics survey published in 2020.
“For the past several years, Pennsbury has been investigating later start times for our high school campus,” Smith explained. “This is due to an increasing body of research that raises concerns with a high school start time prior to 8 a.m.”
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Pennsbury started in the 2019-2020 school year to look closer at school start times.
A council of staff and parents was formed and a district-wide survey in 2021 was conducted.
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The survey found that the majority of parents and students favored a start time of 8 a.m. for the high school.
The majority of respondents reported students either needed an alarm clock or needed repeated wake-ups to get out of bed. Most respondents reported their students were “sleepy” or “sleep-deprived” during the week.
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The majority of respondents to the survey said delaying the start of the middle and high school would “make the morning easier.”
On Thursday, April 18, the Pennsbury School Board will hear a presentation from Dr. Bert Mandelbaum on the benefits of a change in start time at their evening meeting.
“I am excited to continue the work of my predecessors and Pennsbury’s commitment to doing what is in the best interests of students,” Smith said.
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Other school districts in Bucks County have also considered delaying start times. The Quakertown Community School board voted in 2022 to delay the high school start time from 7:45 a.m. to 8:15 a.m.
The Philadelphia School District was set to move high school start times from various earlier times to 9 a.m. starting in 2022. However, the district cited staffing issues, and cancelled the change. However, two elementary schools is the city delayed their start times after petitioning the administration.
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Pennsbury has created a page with more information on the plan to push back the high school start time.
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