Letter to Bill de Blasio - Lunar New Year

Letter

Dear Mayor de Blasio:

We strongly support the commitment you made one year ago, to incorporate Asian Lunar New Year, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha to the New York City Department of Education school holiday calendar. We are pleased to see that the school calendar for 2015-2016 does indeed include Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha as school holidays. However, we are puzzled and concerned over the absence of Asian Lunar New Year from next year's calendar.

As you know, Asian Lunar New Year is the most important holiday of the year for most of the Asian-American community, and Asian-American students should not be forced to choose between celebrating with family or missing school. Students of many other cultures and ethnicities rightly have off for the most important holidays they observe, and kids who celebrate Lunar New Year should be afforded the same. In New York City, one in six students is Asian-American.

We sincerely hope you understand the community's frustration that students must now wait another year to celebrate with their families or face potential academic consequences of missing school. We are happy to work with you to resolve any outstanding barriers to implementing an Asian Lunar New Year school holiday for the 2016-2017 New York City Department of Education school holiday calendar.