Schools make it top priority to ensure that children are prepared for learning. This includes being well rested, well fed, and well cared for. Schools provide programs to help families in ensuring that children are feed. Many programs also offer students the opportunity to take food home for the weekend.
Schools have been known to provide students with clothing, heat, electricity, and even medicine.
The one thing that schools seem to have trouble with controlling is ensuring that children get the proper amount of sleep at night. When children are tired they cannot function effectively in the classroom.
Studies show that children ages three to five need anywhere from eleven to thirteen hours of sleep a night. Children five to twelve need ten to eleven of sleep a night. Teenagers require a minimum of eight and one half hours of sleep a night.
Many students do not receive this kind of rest.
Schools say that children who do not receive the required sleep at night perform poorly and are also often troublemakers in class.
At least eighteen schools in Hollywood, downtown Charleston, West Ashley, and Johns Island are taking initiative and urging parents to put their children to bed earlier.
The schools are handing out bedtime contracts for parents to sign. The parents sign their name and pledge to put their children in bed early enough to meet the recommended sleep hours for their child’s age group.
To show support for the program, one principal stood outside the school in her robe and questioned parents about signing the contract. The students even came to school in their pajamas. The teachers planned activities around a sleep theme.
The schools want to track students and discipline records according to how much sleep the children are receiving. They feel that they will see a difference when the children are more rested.
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