With a school day schedule that runs from 8:55 through 3:55, students like Alan Garcia have a hard time balancing their sleeping schedule with 6:00 AM soccer practice and daily homework assignments. These hours can become a problem for many students and teachers for many reasons. Research has shown that starting the school day later can improve productivity and attendance in students. If the school day started later students would have improved academic performance, better attendance, and even an increased passion to learn.

Students who are in sports with morning practice would have more time to rest and this would improve their academic performance. According to Alan Garcia, a student athlete, it is hard to concentrate and work on schoolwork for constant periods of time when he gets less than 8 hours of sleep. Other students who have to wake up early for sports practice have said that they don’t get much work done on days when they wake up too early.

According to the National Sleep Foundation the ideal amount of sleep for an athlete is about 10 hours of sleep. This is supported by data collected by investigators from the University of Washington and the Salk Institute for biological studies, later wake up time were associated with grades that were 4.5 percent higher and improved attendance and timeliness.

A later starting school day at Chapin would help students perform better academically and make it to class on time consistently. If the school day started at 9:55 or 10:55 rather than 8:55, it would improve the sleeping schedules of students and as a result improve both grades and attendance amongst most students.