New York State has officially mandated that the Lunar New Year become a school holiday in 2024.

The Lunar New Year is the celebration of the arrival of spring and the beginning of the new year on the lunisolar calendar. It’s mostly celebrated in China, South Korea, Vietnam and any other country where there is a significant Chinese population. In 2024 the holiday falls on Saturday, Feb. 10.

With the holiday falling on a Saturday, the first year schools will be required to give the day off will be impacted less, but local schools say that the calendar will have to be changed to accommodate in the following years.

“This year the holiday falls on Saturday, Feb. 10, so we will not lose an additional day of school,” Bemus Point Superintendent, Joseph Reyda said. “However, next year it occurs on Wednesday, Jan. 29. The year after it will happen on Tuesday, Feb. 17. When we build the school calendar we must have 180 days of school for the students. The addition of a new holiday will make the construction of the calendar more difficult.”

Reyda said the Lunar New Year is celebrated as a time for a fresh start and the school is going to learn as much as possible about the new holiday and the people who celebrate it, with the goal of making it more than just another day off of school.

Superintendent of Jamestown Public Schools, Kevin Whitaker, said that the addition of more holidays can do more than just change the setup of the school calendar for the year. The addition of more holidays also decreases the amount of time students are in the classroom with instructional time.

“Our students have struggled after COVID, especially in math and reading, and diminishing instructional time with our teachers and other support staff makes the recovery from that impact more difficult,” Whitaker said. “Our students have struggled with mental health after the COVID impacts, and not being able to see social workers, counselors or other supportive adults in the school setting impacts relationships and student resilience and recovery.”

Additionally, Whitaker said that while he understands that the governor is in the process of being equitable about the recognition of significant holidays for New York, the impacts are not only on student learning but also present some logistical challenges. Logistically, planning for snow days will be harder, especially in years with longer December and January holiday breaks. Parents will be required to find child care for an additional day with no school, and Whitaker said many districts have a required amount of days staff have to work, which is more than the amount of instructional days in a year. Adding more holidays will also present a challenge when it comes to meeting those required days.

While new holidays present challenges, Whitaker said schools will follow the law.

“Schools will continue to follow the law, and when these and any potential other future holidays are enacted, we will comply with what regulation and state law tell us we have to do,” Whitaker said. “I hope that we will be able to use the additional holiday time for learning — perhaps about the cultures and traditions behind these new holidays themselves.”

Randolph Central School Superintendent Kaine Kelly said a main concern of his is that adding more holidays like Lunar New Year will lead to the addition of even more.

“Unlike Juneteenth, this is not a state holiday, just a holiday for schools which could put additional burdens on parents,” Kelly said. “Enacting Asian Lunar New Year as a school holiday could lead to a wave of new school holidays. I feel like this sets a dangerous precedent. There are approximately 1.7 million New Yorkers of Asian descent, but 2.2 million New Yorkers that identify as Jewish. Most school districts in the state do not close for Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur.”

Additionally, Kelly said there are over 750,000 Muslims in New York State, who also have two major holidays — Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. Schools do not close for these holidays either, Kelly said.

“I am not trying to lessen the importance of any of these holidays or claim that any one holiday is more important than the others,” Kelly said. “My concern is, where will it end? Our school calendar is restricted by NYS law and collective bargaining agreements already. Continuing to add holidays will only further restrict our ability to fit in the mandated 180 days of instruction for our students.”