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An Hour Later, a Step Back: Attendance Drops After Schedule Shift
An Hour Later, a Step Back: Attendance Drops After Schedule Shift
Erika Begay
The Flagstaff Unified School District decided to delay the school start time by an hour for the 2025-2026 school year and the goal seemed simple—allow students to get more rest, improve focus, and boost academic performance. But over the past few months, Flagstaff High School teachers have noticed a concerning pattern: more tardies, more absences than before, and less engagement. When asked about the attendance date since the shift, Mr. Fern, the Honors 10 English teacher states, “I feel like it’s made it worse, I think I've had more tardies in my first hour than ever before in my career—and it’s not just me, other teachers are seeing it too.” The schedule shift followed nationwide research data: suggesting that students function better with later mornings, ultimately improving academic performance. But locally, the shift seems to have had the opposite effect.
This raises concerns because the idea seemed simple, but it isn't matching the reality inside Flagstaff High School classrooms. Chronic absenteeism can really negatively affect student learning. When students miss class time, they can fall behind on lessons, they can miss lectures, they can lose motivation, and more importantly they risk lower academic achievement. While the intention behind the schedule change was to boost rest and mental health, it may also be harming student academic consistency instead. As one teacher summed it up “They tried to fix the problem—but it feels like they’ve created a new one”
Despite all the concerns, the change does carry a minimal number of benefits. Some students report they feel less tired in earlier classes and throughout the day. Still, the school may need to re-evaluate attendance data here and find ways to better balance rest and responsibility.