FCPS Seeks Your Views on High School Bells

As it considers making changes to high school start times, Fairfax County Public Schools wants to know your opinion.

There will be a series of public meetings on the subject. South Lakes High School will host one from 7 to 9 p.m. on May 27.

If you cannot make a meeting, FCPS still wants to hear from you in an online survey. The survey (and a short presentation) are available here.

After working with sleep experts from Children’s National Medical Center for more than a year, the school board recently picked four scenarios recommended by the doctors that would adjust high school start times to begin after 8 a.m. Several of the plans would also adjust middle- and elementary-school start times as well.

FCPS high schools currently begin at 7:20 a.m., which leaves some teens chronically sleep deprived.

CNMC doctors say teens need eight hours of sleep or more for optimum health. Sleep deprivation leads to shortened attention span, decreased higher level cognitive skills, reduced ability to learn and remember new information, decreased efficiency in completing tasks, lower standardized test scores and decreased school achievement, says CNMC’s Project Smart Sleep website.