SB 328
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Date of Hearing: July 10, 2019
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Patrick O'Donnell, Chair
SB 328 (Portantino) – As Amended May 8, 2019
SENATE VOTE: 24-9
SUBJECT: Pupil attendance: school start time
SUMMARY: Prohibits high schools, including those operated as charter schools, from
beginning their schoolday before 8:30 a.m. Prohibits middle schools, including those operated as
charter schools, from beginning their schoolday before 8:00 a.m. Specifically, this bill:
1) Prohibits the schoolday for high schools, including high schools operated as charter schools,
from beginning no earlier than 8:30 a.m.
2) Prohibits the schoolday for middle schools, including middle schools operated as charter
schools, from beginning no earlier than 8:00 a.m.
3) Defines “schoolday” as having the same meaning as defined by the school district or charter
school for purposes of calculating average daily attendance in order to compute any
apportionments of state funding.
4) Authorizes school districts or charter schools to offer classes or activities to a limited number
of pupils before the start of the schoolday that do not generate average daily attendance for
purposes of computing any apportionments of state funding.
5) Requires that specified start times be implemented by middle schools and high schools no
later than July 1, 2022, or the date on which a school district’s or charter school’s respective
collective bargaining agreement that is operative on January 1, 2020, expires, whichever is
later.
6) Exempts rural school districts from specified start times.
7) Encourages the California Department of Education (CDE) to post on its website available
research on the impact of sleep deprivation on adolescents and the benefits of a later school
start time, and examples of successful strategies for managing the change to a later school
start time, and to advise school districts of this posting.
8) States that the Legislature encourages school districts and community organizations to
inform their communities, including parents, teenagers, educators, athletic coaches, and other
stakeholders, about the health, safety, and academic impact of sleep deprivation on middle
and high school pupils and the benefits of a later school start time, and to discuss local
strategies to successfully implement the later school start time.

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EXISTING LAW:
1) Requires the governing board of each school district to fix the length of the schoolday for the
grades and classes of the schools maintained by the district. (Education Code (EC) Section
46100)
2) Specifies that the minimum schoolday for purposes of average daily attendance for grades 412 is typically 240 minutes, except as otherwise provided for specialized programs. (EC
Sections 46113, 46141)
3) Requires school districts and county offices of education to offer 54,000 instructional
minutes annually for grades 4-8 and to offer 64,800 instructional minutes annually for grades
9-12, except as otherwise provided. (EC Section 46200 et seq.)
4) Authorizes the governing board of a school district that maintains a junior high school or
high school to schedule classes in these schools so that each pupil attends classes for at least
1,200 minutes during any five-schoolday period or 2,400 minutes during any 10-schoolday
period, and specifies that under that kind of schedule, authorizes any pupil to attend school
for less than the total number of days in which the school is in session as long as the pupil
attends the required number of minutes per five-schoolday period or per 10-schoolday period
to accommodate career technical education and regional occupational center and program
courses and block or other alternative school class schedules. (EC Section 46160)
5) Requires the governing board of a school district, before implementing an alternative
schedule in any school of the district, to consult in good faith in an effort to reach agreement
with the certificated and classified employees of the school, with the parents of pupils who
would be affected by the change, and with the community at large, and requires the
consultation to include at least one public hearing for which the board has given adequate
notice to the employees and to the parents of pupils affected. (EC Section 46162)
6) Establishes collective bargaining rights for public school teachers, which gives teachers the
right to elect an exclusive representative to bargain wages and working conditions with local
school boards. Mandatory issues that fall under the “scope of representation” include wages,
hours of employment, and other terms and conditions of employment such as health and
welfare benefits, leave, transfer, and reassignment policies, safety conditions, class size,
procedures to be used for the evaluation of employees, organizational security, and grievance
procedures. (Government Code Sections 3540, et seq., 3543.2(a)(1))
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Senate Appropriations Committee,


Unknown Proposition 98 General Fund cost pressure, likely in the low millions, for
schools to provide additional staff time for supervision before school.



Significant local costs, potentially in the millions of dollars, for school districts to provide
home-to-school transportation services or purchase additional buses, and for local
collective bargaining activities.

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COMMENTS:
Need for the bill. According to the author, “SB 328 is based on the recommendations of the
American Academy of Pediatricians and the Centers for Disease Control. These organizations
issued their recommendations after reviewing extensive academic research on the sleep science
and biology of teens and concluding that our children’s well-being deserves to be the primary
focus when setting school start time. There is overwhelming evidence that moving high school
and middle school start time later in the day increases academic performance and the public
health of teenage students. It is appropriate and consistent for the State Legislature to enact
minimum public health standards based on medical and biological research.
The majority of middle and high schools in California begin at times that are contrary to the
sleep-health- needs and developmental norms of adolescents. Currently, California has over 3
million middle school and high school students. The average school start time for these students
is 8:07 a.m. These early start times are having detrimental and adverse effects on our student’s
health, stifling academic performance and putting our children in serious risks. This small
change of having high school start no earlier than 8:30 a.m. and middle school start no earlier
than 8:00 a.m. will improve student health, safety, and educational development. As both the
incidences of suicidal thoughts and car accidents are significantly reduced after school start times
are shifted later SB 328 has the potential to save lives.”
Current school start times. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the
average start time for middle and high schools in California was 8:07 a.m. in 2011-12. The
distribution of start times was as follows:





Before 7:30 a.m.,
7:30 to 7:59 a.m.,
8:00 to 8:29 a.m.,
8:30 a.m. or later,

3.5% of schools
27.7% of schools
47.6% of schools
21.2% of schools

These data reflect the distribution of start times among schools; the distribution among students
was not reported and were collected through a survey by the U.S. Department of Education,
which asked the question: "At what time do most of the students in this school begin the school
day?" The survey did not distinguish between the regular school day and zero periods, as this bill
does, nor does the survey distinguish between public middle, high, and combined schools.
Therefore, the reported start times are likely to include zero periods from schools in which most
students attend a zero period class, so they are not necessarily an accurate reflection of the start
times for the regular school day. Nevertheless, these data suggest that about one-fifth of
California's schools are already in compliance with this bill, about one-half would need to delay
their start times by 30 minutes or less, about one-fourth would need to increase their start times
by 31 to 60 minutes, and fewer than 5% would need to increase their start times by at least 60
minutes to be in compliance.
Local control. Under California’s system of education governance, most aspects of the operation
of schools is determined by the locally elected governing board. This system recognizes the
diversity of California’s communities, which differ in geography, size, and demographics. This
bill raises fundamental questions about the balance of state and local control. Local governing
boards and the governing bodies of charter schools currently have the authority to set school start

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times based both on the existing body of research, and the needs of students and the community.
Many California schools already begin after 8:00 a.m. and 8:30 a.m., as noted, above. The
Committee may wish to consider that if this bill is passed the autonomy of local governing
boards and governing bodies of charter schools will be fundamentally changed by state statute.
Potential impact. This bill would require many school districts to push back their current start
times to 8:30 a.m. or later for high school, and to 8:00 a.m. or later for middle school. The
Committee may wish consider how that change, which for some schools would be almost an
hour later, could have unintended impacts, including, but not limited to, impacts on each of the
following:


Home-to-school transportation. Although providing home-to-school transportation is no
longer a requirement for local educational education agencies (LEAs) to provide, unless
transportation is included in a student’s individualized education program, many LEAs
continue to provide transportation to some or all of the students they serve. Further,
several LEAs have worked with local transportation agencies to coordinate additional bus
routes for students, and also relieve local traffic congestion at peak times of the day. The
Rim of the World Unified School District (ROWUSD) bases its budget on a 95% average
daily attendance, and relies heavily on home-to-school transportation to meet its budgeted
goal for funding. In order to implement a start time of 8:30 a.m. at their high schools,
ROWUSD calculates a one-time cost of over $3 million for buses, uniforms, chains,
initial training and drug testing, with ongoing costs of approximately $1.4 million per
year and would result in fiscal insolvency for the district. The Westside Union High
School District has participated for over 40 years in the Antelope Valley Schools
Transportation Agency in order to share transportation resources. If this bill is enacted,
this LEA will need to either start schools serving students in kindergarten through sixth
grade much earlier, or much later. The El Dorado Union High School District reports it
will need to purchase at least seven busses to implement a delayed school start time. The
Jurupa Unified School District calculates it will need to spend approximately $1 million
to purchases 2 additional buses and 3 drivers to accommodate a delayed school start time.



Before and after school programs. Before and after school programs are designed for
multiple purposes: to provide a safe environment for students in the hours before and
after school when there may be limited adult supervision, to provide enrichment activities
(such as homework assistance, field trips), as well as provide child care for working
families. Existing state and federal law establish various after school academic
enrichment programs including the 21st Century High School After School Safety and
Enrichment for Teens Program, the After School Education and Safety Program, and the
federally funded 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program. While some of
these programs may include a before school component, pushing school start time back to
8:30 a.m. does not seem likely to significantly decrease the need for after school
programs, but it does seem likely to increase capacity demands on before school
programs. Are there sufficient resources to meet those demands? If schools lack the
necessary resources to expand before school programs, and parents – out of necessity –
continue to drop their children off at school at the traditionally earlier times, will those
students be appropriately supervised?



Supervision. It is reasonable to expect that in a unified school district, after adjusting
school start times for middle and high schools, elementary schools may need to start

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earlier and end earlier in order to accommodate the adjusted transportation and other
logistics changes. LEAs will likely need to hire additional supervisory staff for the before
and after school hours to ensure the safety of the youngest students, in addition to making
changes to the operating hours of before and after school programs, creating new costs
and potentially diverting funds from instructional activities. Many parents will likely not
be able to adjust their work schedules, and will continue to drop off their students at the
same time. The Hemet Unified School District reports they will not be able to simply
“flip” an hour of coverage from the afternoon to the morning, due to the numerous events
that take place after school. If activities and programs like after school programs, clubs
and athletics end an hour later, their district will need the supervision coverage an hour
longer in addition to adding the time in the morning.


Extracurricular activities, including athletics. Pushing back the time school starts
necessitates pushing back the time school ends. Could converting time in the afternoon
that is currently used for extracurricular activities to in-class school time negatively
impact extracurricular activities, including athletics? Later school start times would push
back extracurricular activity start times, forcing students to complete homework and
other studying activities further into the evening. Many LEAs report concerns regarding
student safety moving athletics practices and games later in the day when there may not
be daylight. Lighting of athletic fields will need to be added, or athletic practices will
need to start before school to accommodate light and temperature considerations.
Conversely, could requiring every high school to start at 8:30 a.m. or later, and middle
school to start at 8:00 a.m. or later actually help athletics schedules? Are there positive
benefits to keeping students who are not engaged in after school extracurricular activities
in school longer? The body of research on this potential area of impact is very small.



Block schedules. Block schedules in middle and high schools typically replace a more
traditional schedule of six or seven 40-50 minute daily periods with longer class periods
that meet fewer times each day and week. Some block schedules might last 120 minutes
per period and meet a few times a week instead of every day. Some block schedules
include periods of different length, providing longer classes for core academic subjects
and shorter daily periods for electives, or opportunities for students to work off campus in
internships. Block schedules are optional and customized locally at the LEA and school
level. It is reasonable to expect that adjusting start times will require further
modifications to block scheduling in ways potentially more complicated than a more
traditional schedule.



Collective bargaining. Existing law includes "hours of employment" within the scope of
collective bargaining [Government Code §3543.2(a)(1)]. Accordingly, to the extent this
bill requires schools to change their existing start times, collective bargaining contracts
would be affected. This bill requires that specified start times be implemented by middle
schools and high schools no later than July 1, 2022, or the date on which a school
district’s or charter school’s respective collective bargaining agreement that is operative
on January 1, 2020, expires, whichever is later. The Porterville Unified School District
negotiated a collective bargaining agreement in 2018 with certificated employees in order
to adjust school start and end times to fit the needs of their students. Should school start
times be required to start at later times it would likely jeopardize the LEA’s ability to
formulate a new schedule that provides supports, such as their Breakfast-in-theClassroom initiative, developed with local stakeholder input.

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Research on impact of delayed school start times. A number of studies over the last 15 years
have investigated the impact of delayed school start times on student outcomes, with wide
variation in conclusions and study design.


Academic achievement. Very little consensus is found among researchers on the impacts
of school start time on academic performance. The 2014 School Start Times for
Adolescents policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics states,
“Improvements in academic achievement associated with delayed start times have been
somewhat less consistently demonstrated.” Further, a 2016 journal article in SLEEP,
Longitudinal Outcomes of Start Time Delay on Sleep, Behavior, and Achievement in High
School found, “No evidence to suggest that a change in school start times from earlier to
later was associated with either improvement or decline in academic performance.” In a
2012 EducationNext article, Do Schools Begin Too Early? examined results from
standardized test scores of middle school students in Wake County, North Carolina and
found, “Delaying school start times by one hour, from roughly 7:30 to 8:30, increases
standardized test scores by at least 2 percentile points in math and 1 percentile point in
reading.”
The Seattle School District in the state of Washington delayed the start time for
secondary schools from 7:50 to 8:45 a.m. in the 2016–2017 academic year. A 2018
research article in Science Advances titled, Sleepmore in Seattle: Later School Start
Times are Associated with More Sleep and Better Performance in High School Students,
summarized the findings of a study of the impact of the delayed start time. The study
populations included sophomores of two public high schools in Seattle in which the
authors of the article measured sleep-wake cycles using wrist activity devices during the
spring of 2016 and the spring of 2017 and found, “delayed school start times are
associated with higher grades, reduced sleepiness, and improved attendance and
punctuality. Generalized linear models indicated that student performance, as measured
by second-semester grades, was significantly higher.” The Committee may wish to
consider that the article cited related to the Seattle study does not include longitudinal
results for several years after the school start time was changed.



Attendance and graduation rates. A 2017 article in the Journal of the National Sleep
Health Foundation, Delayed High School Start Times Later than 8:30 a.m. and Impact on
Graduation Rates and Attendance Rates, reported the findings of a study of 29 public
high schools from eight school districts located throughout seven different states
comparing data from the year the later school start time was implemented with two years
prior – linked a start time of later than 8:30 a.m. to improved attendance and graduation
rates. However, this study did not include an analysis of other internal or external factors
to the school that could have influenced these findings such as changes to curriculum,
student supports, and other interventions. According to a 2016 journal article in SLEEP,
Longitudinal Outcomes of Start Time Delay on Sleep, Behavior, and Achievement in High
School, which collected and analyzed data from a public high school in Glen Falls, New
York, “Neither unexcused nor excused absences improved after the delay in start times
was implemented—in fact, our data indicated a slight increase in absences posttransition.”



Punctuality and tardiness. In the 2018 study of delayed school start times in Seattle (cited
above) found, “…the later school starts led to an increase in punctuality and attendance

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that, remarkably, was only evident in the economically disadvantaged school.” Similarly,
according to a 2016 journal article in SLEEP, Longitudinal outcomes of start time delay
on sleep, behavior, and achievement in high school, “Delaying school start times had a
small but robust effect on decreasing tardiness, particularly unexcused tardies that often
result from oversleeping.”


Amount of nighttime sleep. According to a 2014 research paper from the Center for
Applied Research and Educational Improvement at the University of Minnesota,
Examining the Impact of Later High School Start Times on the Health and Academic
Performance of High School Students: A Multi-Site Study, which collected survey data
and conducted interviews with students and parents from eight public high schools in five
school districts in three states, “Results show that, on average, the teens who had high
school start times of 8:35 a.m. or earlier averaged about 7.8 hours of sleep. In
comparison, students at Jackson Hole High School, which changed its start time from
7:25 a.m. to 8:55 a.m., are now be averaging greater than 8 hours of sleep.” The 2015
article, School Start Time and Adolescent Sleep Patterns: Results from the U.S. National
Comorbidity Survey—Adolescent Supplement, American Journal of Public Health, which
surveyed over 9,000 students across the United States, “Adjusting for age, sex, school
level, urbanicity, and student employment, each half-hour increase in start time before
8:01 a.m. was associated with 11.36 more minutes of weeknight sleep in an overall
sample. From 8:01 a.m. onward, start time and sleep duration were not significantly
associated.”
In contrast, a 2016 journal article in SLEEP, Longitudinal outcomes of start time delay on
sleep, behavior, and achievement in high school, which studied the impact of later school
start times in high school in both the year the later start time [Wave 1] was implemented
and one year later [Wave 2], “In most examinations of sleep variables after start time
changes are implemented, students slept in later in the morning and held bedtimes
constant, leading to a net gain of sleep that sometimes exceeds the amount by which the
start time was delayed. In our study, this did not occur: students did initially hold
bedtimes roughly steady, and slept later, but by Wave 2, one year after the change in start
times, bedtimes had delayed again. Although the sample reported 20 minutes longer total
sleep time at Wave 1, these gains returned to baseline by Wave 2, and we detected no
changes in sleepiness physical health, mental health, or sleep satisfaction compared to
baseline levels [emphasis added].”



Impact of sleep on other behaviors. Kyla L. Wahlstrom, Ph.D., in a 2017 article, Later
Start Time for Teens Improve Grades, Mood, and Safety, states, “A seminal analysis of
the data from the national Youth Risk Behavior Survey revealed that eight or more hours
of sleep appear to be the tipping point in the at-risk behaviors of teenagers (McKnightEily et al., 2011). Cigarette, alcohol, and marijuana use declined by 8% to 14% when
teens slept eight or more hours each night, with depressing and sexual activity also
declining by 9% to 11%...In our study, we found the same patterns of benefit for the
health of teens with a later start time. Among the 9,395 students in our study, those who
slept eight or more hours each night were significantly less likely to: report symptoms of
depression; fall asleep in class; drink caffeinated beverages; have a phone or computer in
their bedroom; and do dangerous things without thinking.” Dr. Wahlstrom is also the
author of the University of Minnesota study, cited above. A 2013 article in JAMA
Pediatrics, Sleep-Deprived Young Drivers and the Risk for Crash, which examined data

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of adolescent teen drivers in Australia stated, “On average, those who reported sleeping
six or fewer hours per night had an increased risk for crash compared with those who
reported sleeping more than six hours.” The Committee may wish to consider that this
study of Australian adolescents was not directly related to school start times.
Equity concerns for working and single parent families. It is nearly impossible for school
boards to set their school start times at a time that is convenient for all parents and guardians
because in any given community there is a variance of work schedules for parents and guardians.
The Committee may wish to consider if it is plausible that pushing back school start times may
disproportionately impact working families and single parent families who may not be able take
their children to school later or easily arrange for child care. Is this an issue that will exist
regardless of school start time?
Research on adolescent sleep. A number of research studies over the last 15 years have
examined adolescent sleep, with wide variation in study design and conclusions.


Circadian rhythms and sleep-wake homeostasis. According to the Education Commission
of the States, Later Education Start Times in Adolescence: Time for Change, humans
have a dual process for regulating sleep. The circadian rhythm is the internal clock,
controlling the timing of most 24-hour behavioral and psychological rhythms. These
daily rhythms include alertness and performance rhythms, hormone production, core
body temperature and metabolism. The second process is sleep-wake homeostasis,
effectively reminding the body that it needs to sleep after a certain time. The homeostatic
process is a measure of sleep pressure; when one has been awake for a while, the pressure
to go to sleep becomes greater.
“During puberty adolescents become sleepy later at night and need to sleep later in the
morning as a result of shifts in biological rhythms. These biological changes are often
combined with poor sleep habits (including irregular bedtimes and the presence of
electronics in the bedroom) (Centers for disease Control and Prevention, CDC Features:
Schools Start Too Early).” This phenomenon is known as ‘social jet-lag’.” “Proposed
remedies for social jet-lag and associated sleep loss are individualized work schedules
and later school start-times. According to a 2017 article, The Effects of Self-Selected
Light-Dark Cycles and Social Constraints on Human Sleep and Circadian Timing: A
Model Approach, in Scientific Reports, “While there have been some empirical case
studies, there are currently no standard theory-based quantitative evaluations of the
effects of such interventions on circadian rhythmicity and sleep timing.”



How much sleep do adolescents need? The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)
supports the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommendation that teenagers aged
13 to 18 years should regularly sleep 8 to 10 hours per day for good health. However,
other researchers including Ian Campbell, Ph.D., and Irwin Feinbert, M.D. of the
University of California Davis disagree with the AAP’s recommendation stating in the
David Enterprise on April 30, 2015, “[The AAP’s]…recommended sleep durations are
not based on experimental data. There is no rigorous scientific evidence that supports
this recommendation. Moreover, it is implausible that the amount of sleep that is
biologically needed does not change between age 10 and 17 years.”

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

Other factors. A 2017 article, Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, Delaying Middle
School and High School Start Times Promotes Student Health and Performance: An
American Academy of Sleep Medicine Position Statement, states, “While an operational
change in school start times does not automatically assure longer sleep durations, this
change, coupled with inclusion of relevant and targeted educational materials regarding
the importance of sleep into middle school and high school curricula, will help motivate
students, teachers, and parents to prioritize sleep and implement healthy sleep practices.
This includes a cool, dark, quiet sleep environment; adequate time for 8 to 10 hours of
sleep per night; consistent bedtimes and wake times on weekdays and weekends; a
regular bedtime routine to cue the body that sleep is imminent; and morning light
exposure. Furthermore, the use of sleep-disrupting electronic devices near bedtime or
during the night should be avoided, because light emitted from electronic devices,
particularly blue wavelengths, can suppress the production of melatonin and contribute to
difficulty falling asleep. These practices will benefit the student regardless of school start
time.”

More longitudinal research is needed to study if initial improvements persist. Nearly every
article related to school start times and adolescent sleep patterns includes a recommendation for
additional research on this subject. In particular, more longitudinal studies are needed to
determine the impact of later start times over time; more studies are needed to determine if any
initial improvements exist across both academic, discipline, and other measures of student
success:


“It is clear that additional research is needed to further document the effects of changes in
school start times over time, to examine specific factors that increase or decrease the
likelihood of positive outcomes, and to assess the effect on families, the community,
other stakeholders, and the educational system in general.” AAP Policy Statement,
School Start times for Adolescents, 2014.



“Few studies have assessed whether associations between school start time and sleep
among adolescents differ by age or by sex, and the evidence has been mixed.” American
Journal of Public Health, School Start Time and Adolescent Sleep Patterns: Results from
the U.S. National Comorbidity Survey—Adolescent Supplement, 2015.



“The two U.S. national studies that have reporting associations between school start time
and adolescent sleep patterns did not investigate differences in urbanicity. ” American
Journal of Public Health, School Start Time and Adolescent Sleep Patterns: Results from
the U.S. National Comorbidity Survey—Adolescent Supplement, 2015.



“A recent review, highlights the fact that, although as many as 80 school districts may
have already shifted school timing for adolescents and some positive benefits have been
reported, there is a need for further systematic research to quantify the effectiveness of
this intervention.” Scientific Reports, The Effects of Self-Selected Light-Dark Cycles and
Social Constraints on Human Sleep and Circadian Timing: A Model Approach, 2017.



“Although students have demonstrated potential benefits to delaying school start times,
the existing evidence regarding the association between school start time and sleep also
has limits. As noted by the American Academy of Pediatrics, there is a gap in knowledge
regarding the factors that might modify the association of school start time with sleep

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outcomes.” American Journal of Public Health, School Start Time and Adolescent Sleep
Patterns: Results from the U.S. National Comorbidity Survey—Adolescent Supplement,
2015.


“At present, there is simply insufficient evidence to support the view that later school
start times would be more helpful than other interventions. At a minimum, our
knowledge of adolescent sleep informs us that there is insufficient evidence to justify the
bed durations and school schedules currently recommended by the AAP.” Davis
Enterprise, Opinion: Later School Start Times? Not So Fast, 2015.



“The Seattle school start time delay of 55 minutes did not result in a gain of 55 minutes
of sleep, suggesting that after a year—as opposed to an acute change lasting for 1 week—
students may delay their bedtimes, indicating that there may be other factors that are
keeping teens awake in the evenings of school days.” Sleepmore in Seattle: Later School
Start Times are Associated with More Sleep and Better Performance in High School
Students, Science Advances, 2018.

Recommendations from the AAP. The widely-cited 2014 Policy Statement from the American
Academy of Pediatrics, School Start Times for Adolescents, includes five recommendations in
the concluding remarks. In summary, those recommendations include:
1) Pediatricians should educate adolescents and parents regarding the optimal sleep amount
teenagers need to match physiologic sleep needs (8.5–9.5 hours).
2) Health care professionals, especially those working in school-based clinics or acting in an
advisory capacity to schools, should be aware of adolescent sleep needs, and should
educate parents, teenagers, educators, athletic coaches, and other stakeholders about the
biological and environmental factors, including early school start times, that contribute to
widespread chronic sleep deprivation in America’s youth.
3) Educational interventions for parents and adolescents as well as the general public should
be developed and disseminated by the AAP and other child and sleep health advocacy
groups.
4) Pediatricians and other pediatric health care providers (for example: school physicians,
school nurses) should provide scientific information, evidence-based rationales,
guidance, and support to educate school administrators, parent-teacher associations, and
school boards about the benefits of instituting a delay in start times as a potentially highly
cost-effective countermeasure to adolescent sleep deprivation and sleepiness.
5) Pediatricians should routinely provide education and support to adolescents and families
regarding the significance of sleep and healthy sleep habits as an important component of
anticipatory guidance and well-child care.
The Committee may wish to consider that of the five recommendations for their primary
audience, pediatricians, to consider, only two include language regarding delaying school start
times. The remaining recommendations include information about sleep education and
modifying adolescent sleep behavior.

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Other states. If this bill is enacted, California would become the first state to adopt a late school
start time statewide. According to the Start School Later, Inc. website, Indiana, Maryland, New
Jersey and Pennsylvania have passed laws to study school start times. Several other states are
hearing legislation this year to either study, create a pilot, or mandate specified school start
times. The New York Times reported on September 7, 2018, “The Boston Public School system
voted to change its start times in late 2017 but backed away from that switch after facing
criticism.” The criticism from parents and students largely focused on corresponding new, earlier
start times for elementary schools throughout the district changed in compensation for the later
start times for high schools.
Arguments in support. Supporters cite research showing (1) the negative effects of sleep
deprivation among adolescents and (2) that start times of 8:30 a.m. or later reverses those effects.
They assert that adolescent sleep deprivation "is a public health issue that deserves a serious
immediate response," and that starting school later is a "simple and obvious fix." Supporters also
argue that adolescents' brains are "hard wired" to not sleep before 11:00 p.m., so simply going to
bed earlier is not a solution. Finally, they argue that schools benefit from later start times,
because experience has shown that the later time results in increased attendance (which increases
school district revenue), reduced tardiness, improved academic performance, and a lower
incidence of behavioral problems.
Arguments in opposition. According to the Elk Grove Unified School District, “…the
permissive nature of the California Education Code currently allows Local Education Agencies
to set their own start times. The fact that today more than one in five school districts voluntar ily
meet SB 328’s standards proves the bill is unnecessary for communities that would be well
served by later start times.
For communities and school agencies that would be burdened by a later school schedule,
however, SB 328 would present tremendous difficulties with significant opportunity costs. And
because school schedules have such a wide-ranging and significant impact on operations and
expenses, a great number of districts would be hurt by this legislation for a number of different
reasons. Determining school schedules is a decision that even more than most should reflect
specific conditions and be decided locally, not from Sacramento.”
Related legislation. AB 760 (Cooper) of this Session requires, commencing with the 2019–20
fiscal year, the amount of funds received for specified pupil transportation programs to be
adjusted by a specified cost-of-living calculation, and requires the Superintendent of Public
Instruction to compute an add-on to the total sum of a county superintendent of schools’, school
district’s, or charter school’s base, supplemental, and concentration grants in accordance with a
certain formula to incrementally equalize pupil transportation program funding to 90% of the
approved cost expenditures of the county superintendent of schools’, school district’s, and
charter school’s pupil transportation programs.
SB 328 (Portantino) of the 2017-18 Session was very similar to this bill, but was vetoed by the
Governor, with the following message:
This is a one-size-fits-all approach that is opposed by teachers and school boards. Several
schools have already moved to later start times. Others prefer beginning the school day
earlier. These are the types of decisions best handled in the local community.

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REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
American Academy of Pediatrics, California
American Academy of Sleep Medicine
Brown Alpert Medical School
California District Attorneys Association
California Medical Association
California Police Chiefs Association
California Sleep Society
California State PTA
Center for Human Sleep Science UC Berkeley
Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren
Educate. Advocate.
Edvoice
F.Lux Software LLC
First District PTA
Fourth District PTA
Fresno Unified School District
High School Parent Engagement Group
Kaiser Permanente
Loyola University Maryland
Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford Children's Health
Mental Health America of California
Ninth District PTA
Pasadena Unified School District Board of Education
Peace Officers Research Association of California
Renaissance School Of Medicine
San Diego Unified School District Board of Education
Sleep Research Society
South Pasadena Unified School District
Start School Later
Start School Later California Chapter
Start School Later, San Diego County
Opposition
Alameda County Transportation Commission
Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District (AC Transit)
Association of California School Administrators
California Association of School Business Officials (CASBO)
California Association of School Transportation Officials (CASTO)
California Association of Suburban School Districts
California School Boards Association
California Teachers Association
Charter Schools Development Center
Clovis Unified School District

 SB 328
Page 13
Compton Unified School District
Elk Grove Unified School District
Irvine Unified School District
Kern County Superintendent of Schools
Natomas Unified School District
Oakland Unified School District
Office Of The Riverside County Superintendent of Schools
Orange County Department Of Education
Rim of The World Unified School District
Riverside County Office of Education
San Bernardino County District Advocates for Better Schools (SANDABS)
Small School Districts Association
Torrance Unified School District
Valley Industry and Commerce Association
West Covina Unified School District
2 individuals
Analysis Prepared by: Marguerite Ries / ED. / (916) 319-2087