Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.
Early morning swim practice, a full day of school, evening swim meets, and homework after school is a lot to manage for Maya Anderson. It’s even harder when she doesn’t get enough sleep.
Anderson, a student at Libertyville High School in a suburb north of Chicago, said not getting enough sleep can impact her focus, mood, and performance after a long day. She often struggles to stay awake in class and craves a few more minutes of rest.
It’s why Anderson and two other Libertyville High students — Benjamin Ratner and Addie Krupinski — are advocating for a bill in Springfield that would require public high schools to start no earlier than 8:45 a.m.
Libertyville High School starts at 8:45 a.m., and Anderson acknowledged that she still struggles to balance sleep and her daily activities. But she told state lawmakers at the House Education Policy Committee on Wednesday that her school has seen an overall increase in academic performance and students’ well-being since pushing the start time back in the fall of 2018, although she didn’t highlight particular academic data.
“Later start times are not a panacea. They don’t solve all health problems, nor all sleep problems. As you are well aware, social media, homework and extracurricular activities all impact the quantity and quality of sleep for high schoolers as well,” said Krupinski, who also acknowledged logistical challenges for districts. Nevertheless, she said, “the challenge is well worth the extra sleep it affords Illinois public high school students.”
For over a decade, researchers have been calling attention to sleep loss in teens and advocated for later school start times. Teens like Anderson are supposed to sleep between 8.5 to 9.5 hours, according to a paper from the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2014. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey from 2024 found that in 2021 that 77% of students were not sleeping enough.
Without enough sleep, students are more likely to miss class time and be unable to focus on complex tasks, and are at greater risk of depression.
In its paper, the American Academy of Pediatrics called on schools to start class after 8:30 a.m. There is no Illinois law governing school start times. States and school districts across the nation have recently enacted later start times for high school students.
Rep. Laura Faver Dias, a Democrat whose district includes Libertyville High School, introduced the bill after being persuaded by the Libertyville High School students, she said.
The students were able to find interesting research on how later start times could affect students’ academic outcomes, safety, and mental health, according to Faver Dias.
Faver Dias pointed to the results from a high school in Jackson Hole, Wyoming that changed its start time from 7:35 a.m. to 8:55 a.m. in 2012. Students reported sleeping more, the high school saw students showing up to class on time, and the later start time might have helped reduce car accidents.
California passed similar legislation in 2019 that took effect in 2022. Florida passed a law in 2023 that required later school start times for high school and middle school students by 2026, but now lawmakers are trying to reverse course.
Lawmakers on the House committee expressed a lot of support for the presentation from Libertyville High School students Wednesday. However, some shared opposition to the idea.
Alison Maley, government and public relations director for the Illinois Association of Principals, said she “reluctantly” opposed the proposal because of school busing schedules and high school graduation requirements.
“I think busing, extracurriculars, and then trying to make it all work when it comes to the high school curriculum, are things that we would want to continue to look at,” said Maley during the Wednesday committee meeting. “In general our position is that sometimes a one-size-fits-all answer may not work for every single district in the state.”
Rep. Dan Swanson, a Republican on the committee, said that a local board of education in his district switched to a later start time but then reversed that decision. Parents complained to the board that the later time didn’t align with their work schedules.
“It was about students and parents' schedules aligning so students could get on the bus while parents were heading off to work,” said Swanson.
Rep. Joyce Mason, a Democrat also on the committee, noted Woodland School District 50 changed its start times for middle schoolers, but there were issues related to busing as well as parent work schedules, and teacher concerns.
Mason said the teachers acknowledged that “‘yes, we know this is a good idea for the kids, but we have our own work schedules that we signed up for and established, and we have our own families to take care of.’”
The school district was able to figure out how to make it work: They changed their busing schedule to allow for young students to start earlier and for older students to start later, Mason said. She encouraged the Libertyville High School students to keep advocating for later start times.
It’s not clear what will happen to the bill next. Faver Dias said the goal of Wednesday’s committee hearing was to show lawmakers that the issue is important to high school students’ well-being.
Faver Dias said there are logistical hurdles for districts. But she said she wanted “to start the conversation around educating legislators and district leaders that it really matters and it can actually show benefit across the board.”
Samantha Smylie is the state education reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago covering school districts across the state, legislation, special education and the state board of education. Contact Samantha at ssmylie@chalkbeat.org.
