Whenever a person does not get enough sleep at night, they are as impaired as a person driving with a blood alcohol content of .08 percent, which is illegal in the state of Missouri, according to the National Sleep Foundation. Many students believe starting school later would increase the number of hours of sleep they get. But what is the trade off?

School start times vary throughout different school districts. Although many students have varying opinions about North Kansas City School District’s start times, these decisions are made by the district’s central office and the board of education, and much of it is decided because of buses.

“It take us a little over a half an hour to run a route, so we have start times at 7:23, and then we extend all the way to 9:15,” said North Kansas City Shool District superintendent Daniel Clemens.

The system put into place is a four-tier system, which is operated by about 165 school buses. In the first tier, the buses pick up highschool students, and that takes all 165 buses. After that tier is finished, the bus drivers pick up four out of five middle schools. Antioch is the last middle school picked up in the third tier with the first load of elementary pick up. A fourth tier of elementary school follows after.

“Essentially, that give us a half hour a tier,” said Clemens.

Another reason NKCSD’s start times are ahead of other school districts is because of extracurricular activities. For there to be enough class time before games or scrimmages with other schools, start times need to be earlier so athletes aren’t pulled out of class early.

“Extracurricular activities drive some of the reason why we start schools so early at the high-schools. The suburban conference, many of the schools if they do a freshman, JV, varsity activity, you’d have to start at 4 p.m., and if you don’t start your high schools pretty early in the morning, the kids miss instructional time when they play activities at other schools,” said Clemens.

Another reason start times are earlier is because of elementary school students. Although high-school students are required to be at school by 7:23, the latest elementary school’s start time is at 9:15. If these times were to be moved any later, it could conflict with parents’ work schedules.

“We always have lots of requests from our high-school students to start later, but on the flip side, I also get a lot of negative feedback from our elementary-school parents that we’re starting their schools too late. This really is the happy medium for us,” said Clemens.

The recommended number of hours of sleep needed for a teenager to function throughout the day by the National Sleep Foundation are eight to 10 hours. To be able to meet these standards and wake up by 6 a.m., giving time to be at the bus stop where stop times can start as early as 6:30 a.m., students must be sound asleep by 10 p.m. However, research from the National Sleep Foundation concludes it is unnatural for a teenager to fall asleep before 11 p.m.

“The more homework we have, the later we stay up, especially on top of work. Coming home from work at 9 or 10 and then still having hours of homework puts a lot of stress on someone,” said junior Ethan Westoff.

If these recommended hours are not met, it could have an effect on concentration, ability to solve problems, memory of common knowledge (names, numbers, dates) and delayed learning comprehension can deteriorate, according to the National Sleep Foundation. In one study by NSF, 15 percent of students said they get at least eight and a half hours of sleep on a normal school night. These effects can have an impact on students’ school work and learning in class.

“I’m a night person, so having the school opened later would be awesome,” said sophomore Zach Bunge.

Next year, the school district will again review the school start times and decide if the current time is still acceptable for bus routes and timing purposes.