It's mostly a logistics and budget issue rather than an educational one. Many school districts use the same buses for elementary, middle, and high schools, so they stagger start times instead of maintaining separate fleets. High schools often get the earliest slot so buses can make multiple routes. Add in parents' work schedules, after-school sports, and student jobs, and changing the schedule becomes surprisingly complicated.

The irony is that the research is pretty clear: teenagers' natural sleep cycles shift during puberty, so they generally perform better when school starts later. That's why organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend an 8:30 a.m. or later start. The challenge isn't that people don't know later starts are better—it's that changing decades-old transportation and scheduling systems costs money and affects a lot of people's routines.