Lunar New Year will be an official NYC school holiday starting in 2016. In 2012, the last time Lunar New Year fell on a school day for all students, 62 schools (mapped below) saw their lowest attendance of the year. Roughly 15% of the student body — 146,434 children — missed school. The schools are clustered near NYC's Chinatowns, and in most of them at least a third of the population is Asian.
NYC Department of Education. Data includes all schools for which the DOE tracks attendance. Charter schools are not included.
https://project.wnyc.org/lunar-new-year-attendance
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Jenny Ye, Coulter Jones and John Keefe / WNYC Data News Team. Follow us @datanews, email us here.
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City politicians are proposing Lunar New Year as an NYC school holiday. On Lunar New Year 2012, the last time it fell on a school day, 62 schools (mapped below) saw their lowest attendance of the year. Roughly 15% of the student body — 146,434 children — missed school. The schools are clustered near NYC's Chinatowns, and in most of them at least a third of the population is Asian.