Saint Louis Public Schools may be on the verge of a schedule reset that sleep researchers and pediatricians have urged for years: Moving middle and high school start times later, away from the district’s earliest 7:15 a.m. bell that currently puts some teens at bus stops before sunrise.
In preliminary discussions, district leaders have floated a two-tier system with start times around 8 and 9:30 a.m., a significant shift that proponents say could improve attendance, first-period learning, and student well-being.
The proposal—framed locally as Healthy Start Times and recently rebranded “Thrive Times” by district leaders—draws on a growing body of evidence that adolescent circadian rhythms naturally run later. For many teens, early mornings are biologically misaligned…