CHINATOWN — Local elected officials praised the city’s decision to include two Muslim holidays on the public school calendar Wednesday, but called on Mayor Bill de Blasio to do the same for the Lunar New Year.
“Adding Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha to the school calendar is an important recognition of the diversity of our city,” said state Sen. Daniel Squadron in a statement Wednesday.
But while the mayor made good on his pledge to add the Muslim holidays to the school calendar, Squadron said, he and other elected officials said de Blasio should also designate Lunar New Year as a school holiday.
Many families opt to pull their children out of school to celebrate the holiday, officials said. According to Squadron’s statement, schools in his district — which includes Lower Manhattan — saw absentee rates as high as 80 percent during Lunar New Year.
Councilwoman Margaret Chin said the annual holiday creates a dilemma for many families.
“Asian-American families across the city are still forced to choose between celebrating this annual holiday and sending their children to school,” she said in a statement Wednesday afternoon.
De Blasio, who has expressed support to make Lunar New Year a school holiday, said he would continue to work with Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña to make that a reality.
“What we’ve found in this process is that we are in a very tight situation…with the number of days that we have to achieve each year, so it’s going to take more work to get to that,” he said during Wednesday's announcement of the new school holidays.
“We remain focused on it, but it will take more work, because we have to balance a lot of factors.”
The Department of Education did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
