In Detroit, a school leader said that closing for Eid holidays was a statement to celebrate the diversity of the community.Eid al-Fitr is celebrated by Muslims across the world. In the Hopkinton Public Schools, in Massachusetts, one school board leader noted that closing school for Eid holidays could attract a more diverse pool of educators by not forcing them to take personal days to observe the holiday. Some school districts are beginning to observe Eid holidays as a matter of commitment to equal recognition for Muslim families. In the Fairfax County Public School system, reports show that 33.3% and 38.5% more students than usual were absent from school on Eid al-Fitr holidays in 20, respectively.īut absenteeism isn’t the only factor at play. For instance, a school superintendent in Burlington, Vermont, once related that about 75 of Burlington High School’s roughly 1,100 students were absent on Eid al-Fitr in 2009 – about 25 more than on a typical school day. In some cases, significant numbers of students were not coming to school on Eid al-Fitr anyway – and school officials began to take note.

Why take a day off if Muslims are a minority? The list also includes Philadelphia Baltimore Prince George’s County in Maryland Fairfax County, Loudoun County and Prince William County, all in northern Virginia and several districts across Minnesota, which has a sizable Muslim population. Those school districts include districts such as the Burlington School District in Vermont, which began to close for Eid al-Fitr in 2010, and Detroit, which began to close its public schools for Eid holidays in 2019. In recent years, more and more school districts have begun to close in observance of Eid holidays. For instance, the Irvington school district in New Jersey began to close for the Eid al-Fitr in 2003. The New York City public school system is the largest in the nation, and about 10% of its student population identifies as Muslim.īy the time New York City schools began to close for Eid, several smaller school districts had already been doing so for more than a decade. When New York City announced in 2015 that it would close its public schools in observance of Islam’s two most sacred holidays, it became the first big-city school district in the U.S. How common is it for public schools to close for Islamic holidays? In the following Q&A, Amaarah DeCuir, an education researcher who specializes in issues of concern to Muslim students, illuminates some of the forces that are moving more school districts to close in observance of the Islamic holiday. ( The Conversation) – Some public school districts across the nation will be closed on Monday, May 2, 2022, or Tuesday, May 3, 2022, in observance of the Islamic holiday Eid al-Fitr, a festive celebration marking the end of the month of Ramadan, a month of fasting observed by Muslims worldwide.

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