Late start days have always been a staple, from elementary to high school. Starting later in the day allows students to get additional rest, resulting in a later arrival to school. However, late-start days at Diamond Bar High School seem to have the opposite effect, with many students showing up late to class instead.
At DBHS, late-start is on Wednesdays, when school starts at 9:15 am, instead of 8:30 am. On these days, students get an extra 45 minutes in the morning compared to the other weekdays.
The creation of late-start days in schools was mainly for two reasons. Firstly, starting later during the day would allow students to wake up later than usual. Normally, when students find themselves facing difficulties in their classes, they skip out on sleeping.
Although it may help them finish their homework, not getting enough sleep has other consequences. Students are more likely to arrive at school feeling drained of any motivation.
Another cause of late-start days was to give students more time to arrive at school. With 45 additional minutes, students can sleep in and still arrive at school on time. There is always traffic at school when students are trying to get to class, and sometimes, no matter how hard they try, students still miss the bell by a few minutes. By pushing back the start of school, it gives more opportunity for students to arrive before the bell rings.
School data on tardies from the week of Sep. 22 to 26 shows that late-start Wednesdays have the second-highest amount of tardies. Monday had 15 tardies, Tuesday had 19, Wednesday had 30, Thursday had 26 and Friday had 33.
This shows that, although late-start Wednesdays tried to reduce the number of tardy students, they did not succeed. Instead, these days had a higher number of tardies than most of the other days.
All in all, questions remain as to why this is the result. How did late-start tardies fail so spectacularly to reduce tardiness? While a late start provides extra assurance for students, it can also give them a false sense of security.
Students may believe that if there is more time to get to school, they are able to show up later to school and still make it on time. However, school traffic is more on these days because all students arrive at the same time.
On usual school days, students with different first periods arrive at DBHS at different times. Students with 0 period arrive before 7:13 am, students with 1A arrive before 7:55 am, and students with 1st period arrive before 8:30 am.
However, on late-start Wednesdays, students with 0, 1A, and 1st period all arrive at 9:15 am as opposed to the other four days of the week when arrival times might vary based on a student’s schedule.
Many teachers have gone out of their way to remind students that they don’t have the time they think they need to make it to school. It is suggested that students arrive at the normal time, or at least twenty minutes before the bell rings, to make sure they arrive on time.
In the end, late-start days have gone from a helpful idea to a main cause for tardiness among schools. So next Wednesday, if you find yourself wondering how much time you have to get to school, play it safe. Time slips by quickly, and it is better to be early than late.