High schools and some middle schools in the Syracuse City School District will start at 7:25 a.m. this year, 25 minutes earlier than last year. That's as the district tries to combat a nationwide bus driver shortage. However, parents are worried about the negative impacts this can have.

“Already, it’s way too early, and then to see that they’re gonna go backwards in time, I thought this is not only crazy, but kinda outrageous," said Katherine Saufley, a mother of three children who attend schools in the Syracuse City School District. “The earlier start time is unacceptable in terms of the well-being, basic well-being, basic ability for the kids to be in school and succeeding academically."

High schools and some middle schools will start the school day at 7:25 a.m. However, the American Academy of Pediatrics says those schools shouldn’t start earlier than 8:30 a.m. to allow students to get enough sleep.

“I do believe Superintendent [Anthony] Davis does care about the students, but I think he’s failing to understand how foundational the science is about getting sleep for teenagers," Saufley said.

Pediatrician Cynthia Steinem agrees.

“The development depends on their being able to sleep long enough to actually incorporate the new information and experiences from the day into what they’ve already learned before," she said.

According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, teenagers should sleep 8-10 hours a day.

"Recent research shows that we are actually cleaning the waste out of our brain only when we’re sleeping," Steinem said. "So, if that process is shortened and we don’t ever get our brains waste product cleaned out, then it can’t function normally.”

Saufley believes this shouldn’t have been a consideration.

“Don’t look at it as, ‘OK, the bus is a problem so we have to switch back,’ we have to look at it as it’s not tenable, it’s not acceptable to have the kids go to school earlier, so how do we solve this problem?" she said. “The easiest solution is just move the start time. But we don’t want the easiest solution, we want the solution that actually benefits our kids and makes them successful.”

Superintendent Anthony Davis says the change is meant to be temporary, but it won’t be altered until a solution regarding the bus driver shortage is reached. Davis and his Parent Advisory Council are expected to hold more discussions in the future to figure out a solution.