IPS middle schoolers get a later start time starting next school year
Caroline BeckMiddle school students at Indianapolis Public Schools’ district-run middle schools will get to sleep in a bit next school year.
The seven directly managed IPS middle schools, including two new ones, will start at 9 a.m. for the 2024-25 school year instead of the 7:10 to 7:20 a.m. start time that IPS middle schools currently use.
The middle school dismissal bell will ring at 4 p.m instead of the current 2:10 p.m.
In a letter sent to parents about the new start time, IPS officials said the district made the change after weighing “staff and family input, commitment to our Rebuilding Stronger goals for middle school, and acknowledgment of the research around adolescent development.”
Elementary and high school bell times will remain the same next school year, the district said. Most IPS high schools start around 7:20 a.m. and most elementary schools start around 9:20 a.m.
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Middle school families will receive details on transportation pick-up and drop-off times in early spring 2024, IPS said.
Middle schools that are part of IPS’s innovation network will not follow the new start times because those schools have a more autonomous structure and can decide their own start times.
IPS isn’t the only district to switch around school start times in recent years to align with research that says older kids benefit from later start times.
Many more changes are in store for IPS next year, including breaking up its K-8 schools and opening two more standalone 6-8 middle schools, as part of the Rebuilding Stronger plan.
The district will open two new middle schools at the former Broad Ripple High School and Thomas Carr Howe High School campuses.
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The Rebuilding Stronger plan aims to bolster the district’s middle school grades by providing more equitable access to programming like band, orchestra, algebra, computer science and world languages.
These are the IPS middle schools to which the new school day schedule will apply:
- Henry Longfellow STEM Middle School 28
- Arlington Middle School
- Broad Ripple Middle School
- Harshman Middle School
- Thomas Carr Howe Middle School
- Northwest Middle School
- William Penn STEM Middle School 49
Contact IndyStar reporter Caroline Beck at 317-618-5807 or CBeck@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter: @CarolineB_Indy.
Caroline’s reporting is made possible by Report for America and Glick Philanthropies. As part of its work in Marion County, Glick Philanthropies partners with organizations focused on closing access and achievement gaps in education.
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