Parents protest early start times for elementary schools at a Boston School Committee meeting. Photo: WBZ-TV
To give teens more time to sleep, Boston Public Schools will start high schools later and elementary and K-8 schools earlier. Most high schools will start after 8 a.m. — one not till 9:30 — but more than three dozen elementary and K-8 schools will start at 7:15 or 7:30.
Elementary-school parents are furious about the early start times, reports Max Larkin for WBUR. Some schools will see a two-hour shift in the school day.
“Many parents repeated complaints that they’ll have to rouse small children by 5:30 or 6 in the morning, and cover many more hours of after-school care,” he writes. Some schools will end their day at 1:15 p.m.
In a BPS survey last year, most parents preferred a starting school between 7:45 and 8:45 a.m. However, that would raise the cost of busing significantly. The district’s plan is designed to reduce transportation costs.