The Brookline school system currently includes 5 religious holidays as Category One holidays. This essentially means there is no school on these holidays – Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah (Day 1) (note some of these holidays are included within the Winter and Spring breaks). We are advocating for the idea of adding the Lunar New Year to this list and have organized a petition in February 2018 that was signed by 125 Brookline High students. We are conducting this survey to assess the interest and support of parents/guardians in adding the Lunar New Year to this list. In particular, we would like to determine whether parents/guardians would take the day off to spend with their Asian/Asian American students if it were a Category One holiday.

Please note this survey is intended for parents/guardians of Asian/Asian American students in the Brookline Public School system. While survey results will be kept anonymous, we are asking for names to prevent inappropriate responses.


Question Title

* 1. What school does your child/children attend?

Question Title

* 2. What is your ethnic background? (please select all that apply)

Question Title

* 3. Do you celebrate Lunar New Year?

Question Title

* 4. Please rate the significance of Lunar New Year in your culture. (1 lowest; 4 highest)

  1 2 3 4
Significance of Lunar New Year

Question Title

* 5. Does the holiday become less significant to you because you cannot celebrate it on the actual date?

Question Title

* 6. If the first day of the Lunar New Year were to be a day off from school, would you and/or the student’s co-parent or co-guardian take the day off to celebrate?

Question Title

* 7. Do you think Lunar New Year deserves more recognition in Brookline?

Question Title

* 8. Would you support making the first day of the Lunar New Year a Category One holiday?

Question Title

* 9. Name and email

Question Title

* 10. Additional optional comments [we are especially interested in reasons why you and/or the student’s co-parent or co-guardian would not take the day off to celebrate if the first day of Lunar New Year were to be a day off from school]

T