Early school start times can be difficult for students like Donald Ayon Youm, a senior at McKinley High School, and legislators are looking to require all public schools across the state to start classes no earlier than 8:30 a.m.

Youm, 18, works at Buffalo Wild Wings in Ala Moana Center sometimes until 1 a.m. and then drives home to Liliha to finish his homework.

“Sometimes I won’t have enough time to do my work and have the time to get at least five hours of sleep,” he told the Honolulu Star-­Advertiser in between classes last week.

Currently, 29 of 34 public high schools across the islands begin classes before 8:30 a.m.

SB 63 and HB 333 would require all public elementary middle and high schools to start no earlier than 8:30 a.m.

The state Board of Education could grant exceptions for individual schools that meet unspecified policies and procedures that are not yet outlined in either bill.

The bills also would require the Department of Education to adjust all state-provided bus schedules and meal times to align with the schedule change.

SB 63 has been referred to the Senate Education and Ways and Means Committees. HB 333 has been referred to the House Education and Finance committees.

As both a parent and a physician, Youm’s father, Thomas Isadore, said he understand the importance of sleep and that the proposed shift to later class times “might be a good idea.”

“All the changes in the body physiologically that are happening in that age group — middle school and high school — the body’s internal clock just shifts. They want to stay up later and get up later,” said Isadore, who treats patients at Primary Care Clinics Hawaii.

But requiring classes to begin no earlier than 8:30 a.m. could affect students and their family commutes — especially those with multiple children attending different schools with different start times.

Cindy Reves, an English teacher at McKinley High School since 2004, sees students arrive late to her junior language arts class, their first period of the day, after dropping off siblings at other schools.

“The language (in the bills) talk about high schoolers needing sleep, but the bill would affect elementary school, middle school and high school,” she said. “Could it just be high school? Some of my students who come tardy the first period will say, ‘I was dropping off my sibling.’ So it would help our students who are taking care of younger siblings.”

Reves, who also serves as adviser for the McKinley High School newspaper, The Pinon, thinks the choice should be up to each school.

“Why can’t schools make their own decision?” she asked.

Rep. Darius Kila (D, Nanakuli-Maili) knows the chaos of the morning commute to school.

“In 2023, the first year with the school bus shortage, I actually applied with Ground Transportation Inc.,” Kila told the Star-Advertiser.

“I was a school bus driver for several weeks.”

Kila thinks a later start time combined with a staggered start could alleviate traffic congestion by allowing school bus drivers more time to get more students to school.

“You affect the way people travel by lowering the usage on the road,” Kila said.

“You put the kids’ best interest first.”

Malia Manuel, 17, a senior at McKinley High School, relies on TheBus to get to school because yellow school buses are available only to special-education students at McKinley.

“It would be a 20-minute drive if I had a car,” Manuel said during study hall.

“Since I don’t, I have to bus every morning. So of course that’s way longer, which is why I have to get up at 6 every day.”

Taking TheBus means juggling getting to school on time and navigating bus schedules.

“Often it’s very frustrating because the bus either never comes on time or it comes earlier than the bus app told me, which forces me to run for it,” Manuel wrote in a follow-up text to the Star-Advertiser.

Kiara Chastity Pajarillo, a 17-year-old McKinley senior, likes routine and wants to stick to McKinley’s current 8:10 a.m. start time.

“I really don’t mind it at all,” Pajarillo said. “I can make it.”

She then laughed and pointed to her friend and fellow senior Konatsu Udagawa and said, “But she’s different than me.”

Udagawa agreed.

Udagawa wants to sleep in as late as possible, which means waking up at 7:15 a.m., getting herself ready for school, skipping breakfast and starting each day on an empty stomach.

She called it “a sacrifice I’m willing to make for 10 more minutes of sleep.”

“I’m, like, the opposite of her,” Udagawa said as she joked with Pajarillo.

Udagawa likes the bills that would require McKinley to start no earlier than 8:30 a.m., giving her 20 more minutes to get to her first class.

Udagawa, who’s known as Kona by her fellow seniors, has a full schedule leading up to graduation.

“I have early college classes that I have to study and do tests for,” she said. “It’s really busy. It’s senior year. We have a bunch of activities, events, that we have to do all the planning for.”

She struggles to balance her student life and time for herself because she often has to work until 8 p.m. and then, after homework, stays up on her phone while unwinding from the day.

Udagawa knows there’s something else she needs to prioritize at night:

“It should be sleep.”