South Bay students on Monday are slated to weigh in on a hotly contested issue: school start times.
San Jose Unified School District students plan to tackle the benefits and disadvantages of school start times during a district town hall meeting.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that middle and high school students start the school day no earlier than 8:30 a.m., but a 2014 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study revealed that 93 percent of high schools and 83 percent of middle schools across the nation start before that time.
According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, teens, who often get sleepier later at night, need anywhere from eight to 10 hours of sleep every night. Sleepy teens are more likely to be overweight, not as active, suffer from symptoms of depression and not perform as well in the classroom.
Monday's meeting is slated to begin at 6:30 p.m. at Leland High School.
