Rutigliano School Start Times Proposal Gets Public Hearing
HARTFORD – To better study the health benefits of starting school later, State Representative Dave Rutigliano (R-123) proposed a bill in the Education committee to establish a working group to look at best practices for municipalities across the state.
The legislation, HB-5217, An Act Establishing a Working Group to Study Issues Relating to School Start Times will receive a public hearing on February 26th in the Education committee.
Rep. Rutigliano’s proposal has bi-partisan support in the General Assembly.
“Education decisions should ultimately be decided by local school boards. The intention of this bill is not to mandate later start times, but to help local boards of education with a road-map of best practices. Get all the information in one room so the 169 school districts can see for themselves, what is best for their students and how it can be worked out,” said Rep. Rutigliano. “No child should be waiting for the school bus in the pitch-black morning. After listening to the science, it is quite clear, our students would benefit with later start times.”
At the State Capitol last fall, Rep. Rutigliano participated in a bi-partisan Healthy School Start Times Forum to gather information from experts on the issue.
According to information presented at the forum, research has shown that high school aged students simply are biologically not able to be fully awake before 8 am. It does not matter what time they went to bed or if they had screens on or not. When school start times are moved later, not only do rates of tardiness, truancy, absenteeism, and dropping-out decline, but improvements in academic achievement are nearly twice as high in students from economically disadvantaged homes.