Although the American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended that high schools start at 8:30 a.m. or later, only South Carolina and the District of Columbia have average start times that meet this recommendation. Alaska comes the closest at 8:26 a.m. The average start time for U.S. public high schools, according to data from the 2017-18 National Teacher and Principal Survey, was 8:00 a.m. The earliest average start times were in Louisiana (7:30 a.m.), Massachusetts (7:38 a.m.), and Connecticut (7:39 a.m.).
Schools with the earliest start times tended to be in the suburbs (where 54% of schools start before 8:00 a.m. and 17% before 7:30 a.m.). Schools in towns were the least likely to start their days prior to 7:30 a.m., although urban schools were the most likely to start after 8:30 a.m.
High schools that enrolled larger numbers of students were more likely to start early — 18% of schools enrolling 1,000 or more students and 15% of schools enrolling 750-999 students started before 7:30 a.m. On the opposite end of the spectrum, 28% of schools with fewer than 100 students and 29% of schools with 100-199 students started their day at 8:30 or later.
More complete data, including a map of average start times for each state, are available from the National Center for Education Statistics.
Source: National Center for Education Statistics. (2020, February). Data point: Start time for U.S. public high schools. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education.
