Since California legislators passed a law requiring that classes for high school students begin no earlier than 8:30 a.m., there has been a lot of communication amongst students. 

Although there seems to be a lot of pros due to the new change, there are also cons. As stated in 7 Benefits to Starting School Later, the pros of starting school later include improved academic success, mental health, increased sleep time, minimized tardiness and truancy, and fewer behavioral problems. There are many studies that show all benefits stated. Though the pros outweigh the cons, there are some difficulties that both students and administrators will have to work with. Some of those disadvantages are having trouble with scheduling practice for sports and extracurricular activities and a disruption of parents’ schedule

“I feel like the new bell schedule has its pros and cons, but is affecting most people negatively,” said Caroline Chavez, junior. 

“One of the pros of late start is that I think more students are getting to school on time. However, one con is that many parents are inconvenienced because they’re going to work earlier than the students are going to school,” continued Chavez. 

“It affects my daily routine because everything I would do in a typical day is set back later and it leaves less time for those things,” said Junior Lesly Alcantara. 

“I think the pros to the late bell schedule is the extra time in the mornings and sleep, but some of the cons are that many of us get home way later than before. For athletes that could be hard with practices and for students who take AP classes, they will need more time for homework,” continued Alcantara. 

While it may seem that it is only students having to figure out how to work with the new bell schedule, parents do as well, Chavez explained. Students, parents, teachers and even administrators all have to find ways to work with the new schedule. 

Regardless of all the benefits many think will occur, there still might not be much of a change for students.  

“The new bell schedule is allowing me to wake up later which I enjoy. However, it also means I’m getting home later and going to sleep later, so the amount of sleep I’m getting is relatively the same.” said Chavez. 

“It crowds the amount of time I have to do my homework, it is more stressful,” said Alcantara. “I would go back to the early start if we had the choice,” continued Alcantara. 

Many may have assumed that students will like this change due to them getting “more sleep”, but how students are describing the difficulties they are or will be going through they would rather “go back to early start” as said by Alcantara.