Issaquah has joined the national Start School Later movement! As you may already know, health care professionals, sleep scientists, educators, economists, legislators, parents and students are united in their concern that early school start times for teenagers are a major factor contributing to the widespread sleep deprivation facing teens, and that this constitutes a significant public health concern. Chronic sleep loss undermines the health, safety, and academic achievement. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics have all recognized that chronic sleep loss in adolescents and its consequences are one of the most important public health issues facing our nation’s youth.

In response to scientific evidence, at least 70 public school districts around the country have successfully implemented a delay in high school start times. Bellevue, Mercer Island, Seattle and Northshore School Districts have all committed to looking at ways to push the start times of their secondary schools to 8:00 or later. Unfortunately, Issaquah School District has been reluctant to do the same, citing the fact that they considered it a decade ago and concluded at that time that no changes should be made to the schedule.

A petition will be delivered to the Issaquah School Board on Wednesday, May 13, requesting that Issaquah School District adjust start times so that no one is standing at bus stops at 6:30 a.m. We welcome your presence at this school board meeting. Please consider publishing a link to this petition, so that others in the Issaquah community, especially those who do not have school-aged children and may not be aware of this important public health issue, will gain insight and understanding, and will hopefully support this healthy change. See tinyurl.com/SSLIssaquah.

Dea Eisner Barnett, MD