California late start law aims to make school less of a yawn

When Hansika Daggolu’s junior year of high school starts in the fall, she’ll be watching to see if a later first bell under a new California law means fewer classmates are heads-down on their desks for afternoon naps.

The overall mood, she suspects, will lift as well if her classmates at Mission San Jose High School in Fremont aren’t quite so sleepy.

“I’m really excited and I am so happy this is happening,” said Hansika, 15, who said she will no longer have to get out of bed before 7 a.m. to get to school by 8 a.m.

Beginning this fall high schools in the nation’s most populous state can’t start before 8:30 a.m. and middle schools can’t start before 8 a.m. under a 2019 first-in-the-nation law forbidding earlier start times. Similar proposals are before lawmakers in New Jersey and Massachusetts.

Advocates say teens do better on school work when they’re more alert, and predict even broader effects: a reduction in suicides and teen car accidents and improved physical and mental health.

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