The League of Women Voters has long supported policies and programs that promote quality education as well as the health, well-being, and safety of all children. Research shows that modifying school start times in accordance with the biologically-determined sleep patterns of adolescents is associated with increased school attendance, higher grades, lower drop-out rates, less tardiness, and fewer fall-asleep car crashes by young drivers. In order to set a high priority on the health and safety of Connecticut’s adolescent students and to offer them the opportunity to learn when they are most alert and receptive, the League of Women Voters of Connecticut supports policies and practices that facilitate the alignment of school start times with adolescent sleep patterns. Specifically, we believe that:

1. Adolescent students – in middle school, junior high, and high school—would benefit academically, socially, and physically from starting school no earlier than 8 am.

2. Public schools in Connecticut—junior high schools, middle schools, and high schools—should delay academic instruction until after 8 am.

3. The State of Connecticut should support local efforts to delay the school start times until after 8 am for adolescent students through consultation and technical assistance.

4. State policies should be flexible enough to allow variation in local plans to implement later school start times for adolescents.

 

The League of Women Voters of Connecticut believes that capital punishment should not be a sentencing option for murder or any other crime. A sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of release is punishment that ensures public safety without raising the many complex problems associated with the death penalty. Along with opposition to the death penalty, we support:

Continued strong standards of competency and experience for attorneys, and appropriate compensation.

Continued sufficient State funding for testing and preservation of biological evidence.

Reforms to assure validity of testimony by eyewitnesses, codefendants, and jailhouse informants.

Reforms, including collection of data, to address problems of proportionality in sentencing.

Until the death penalty in Connecticut is abolished, the League of Women Voters of Connecticut supports an immediate moratorium on executions.