eid holiday status in new jersey
Currently, all Muslim students attending any New Jersey public school can receive an excused absence using a note from a religious leader or masjid to observe Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. Unfortunately, some students and families have faced challenges making the excused absence process difficult. Muslim students deserve to observe their sacred holidays without push back.
School districts that have a significant number of Muslims should close for the top Muslim holidays, which for recent years has only landed once outside of summer and would only be two days in the academic year for the future.
CAIR New Jersey’s Eid holiday map shows the current status of Eid al-Fitr in New Jersey public schools by school district/municipality. They are listed by county for your convenience. New versions of this map will be continually updated. Eid al-Adha fell during summer break for some years. If a school district is missing from the map, please email our Operations Coordinator, Dyaa Terpstra via email at dterpstra[at]cair.com
2023-2024 Map Takeaways
- Every district that promised Eid this year is following through.
- Of the districts that had off last year, only Parsippany is not off this year. They used a snow day last year and did not intend on adding Eid to the calendar.
- Eid ul-Fitr falls under Spring Break for some districts. This may have been coincidental due to the new date or purposeful alignment but the districts that had off last year are counted. Districts that never had Eid off but spring break aligns with Eid out of total coincidence are not counted.
- No district plans to give the day off for Eid ul-Adha. Eid ul-Adha has reentered the school year at its very end depending on the school district and advocacy for 2025 is needed.
how can i make a change?
CAIR New Jersey urges Muslim high schoolers to join its Muslim Youth Ambassador Program where students will be trained to be leaders within their communities. The training allows students to have real experience in addressing issues pertaining to public school accommodations like advocating for the Eid holiday.
InshaAllah, together we can paint this map green!
social media toolkit
Here is a social media toolkit to share information about #EidinNJ and the #RecognizeEidHolidayInSchools campaign.
Please do not hesitate to reach out to CAIR-NJ to discuss your advocacy strategy.
open letter to boards of education - 2/3/2023
More and more New Jersey public schools are recognizing Eid as a holiday and closing schools, providing Muslim students with a long overdue accommodation. In doing so, schools have the opportunity to inspire conversations among students and staff and play a crucial role in dispelling anti-Muslim bigotry.
As the New Jersey chapter of the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, we join students and parents throughout the state in calling upon local school districts to adopt Eid as a day off in the academic calendar.
This open letter has been sent to boards of education in local municipalities throughout the state.
