Comment Most places I know start around 8am (Score 1) 161
Where I grew up my high school schedule was 710am-220pm. I actually liked that schedule. If you didn't play a sport, you could still get home and complete homework and still have part of the afternoon and evening to hang out or do whatever you liked. If you did play a sport, you had about an hour and a half to finish homework before practice and two and a half hours to finish before a game.
The kids in my local school district always complain they can't do their homework until they get home and are often up until midnight finishing hit. While studies have shown that teenagers' circadian rhythms are different from adults and going to school early is harmful to them, it didn't bother me personally.
If we were to have them start much later, we also would have to change adult worktimes. For example, I grew up a 90 minute train ride into NYC. If the schools in my town didn't start early, then there would be many parents who were late for work each day. My district made those changes to take that into account. After school programs are easy to get grants for. Before school programs? Not so much.