McLean Citizens Association Presents "Later High School Start Times: A Blueprint for Positive Change?"

Children’s National Medical Center’s Sleep Medicine Department will give a presentation to the McLean’s Citizen Association at 7:30 PM on October 16, 2013 at the McLean Community Center, 1234 Ingleside Avenue, McLean.

Dr. Judith Owens is an internationally recognized expert in sleep disorders medicine. She has decades of experience as a sleep clinician and researcher. She has given hundreds of talks to health care providers, policy makers, teachers, parents, and children on sleep health. Dr. Owens has published numerous scientific papers, book chapters, and articles on child and adolescent sleep.

As a co-director of a new contract with Fairfax County Public Schools, Dr. Owens and her team are charged with community engagement and education program outreach as well as the development of a “Blueprint for Change,” a report outlining how the FCPS School Board can achieve its goal of changing school start times for high schools.

This presentation will cover normal and abnormal changes in sleep associated with adolescence and detail some of the mental, physical, and cognitive health consequences of these changes. Dr. Owens will also present research on school start times’ effects on sleep and related health, academic, and behavioral outcomes. There will be ample time to discuss any questions or concerns that the McLean community might have.

For more information about the Blueprint for Change, please visit Smart School Start.