SLEEP Goal:To increase awareness of teen sleep needs and to change Fairfax County Public School (FCPS) middle and high school start times to later in the morning. Research shows that later start times correspond with teen sleep needs and improve health, quality of life, and school performance.

The effort to change Fairfax County Public School start times by parents concerned about the health impact of too-early high school start times on adolescent students has been going on for at least 10 years. SLEEP was started in January 2004 by Sandy Evans and Phyllis Payne. Momentum is building for a change. We need your continuing support to finally accomplish the goal of so many parents for so long. To learn more about the history of this issue in Fairfax, please visit the History page.

Help Share Information: Increasing awareness about benefits of later morning start times to the health, well-being, safety, and performance of our children is one common theme of successful efforts to shift start times.

You can help. Download and copy:

• Flyer* for middle and high school
• Flyer for elementary sch. parents

Make 25-50 copies of the flyer and hand them out in front of the school.

Please email sleepinfairfax@gmail.com to let us know about your efforts.
* Two pages, meant to be copied back-to-back. If this is cost-prohibitive, please feel free to distribute page 1 only.

2012: Year in Review

Click the link above for a summary of progress made during 2012. Highlights include:

School Board Resolution Recognizes Research and Sets Goal

To help the school board, SLEEP volunteers prepared a research report about districts that start schools after 8:00 a.m. and provided information about change management and elements of success from other districts that shifted start times.

• 72 of 95 counties in Virginia start high schools at or after 8:00 a.m.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Sleep Night  

Winning photo entry by Marisa Ross

Sleep Night was held at Annandale High School on February 26…

Dr. Judith Owens, Director of Sleep Medicine at Children's National Medical Center did a great job walking the audience through the medical reasons why getting enough sleep is so important. "We need sleep to facilitate memory and to help us with executive functions, such as the ability to organize our thoughts, to moderate our emotions and to be goal-directed. These executive functions are developing most rapidly during the teenage years." Dr. Owens presentation was followed by a lively panel discussion and dialogue with attendees.

Read the whole story , including the news that the Virginia Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (VA AAP) announced its support of later morning start times for high school students. VA AAP joins other organizations on record supporting the positive impact that later morning school schedules have on teen sleep:  

• Medical Society of Northern Virginia,  
• Virginia PTA,  
• Fairfax County Council of PTA's,  
• League of Women Voters-Fairfax Area,  
• Fairfax County Federation of Teachers (FCFT),  
• FCPS School Health Advisory Committee,  
• Fairfax Zero Tolerance Reform,  
• Northern Virginia Healthy Kids Coalition (9-5-2-1-0 Campaign),  
• Real Food For Kids, and  
• Coalition of the Silence.