Florida’s Broward County public schools declare Diwali a holiday

For the first time county schools are set to take a day off for the Indian festival of lights

By Arun Kumar

For the first time, Broward County Public Schools in Florida are set to take a day off on Oct 20 next year for Diwali, the Indian festival of lights celebrated by a billion people around the world.

School Board members officially approved the calendar for the upcoming 2025-2026 school with Diwali as a holiday at a meeting last week, Miami Herald reported.

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The decision will enable about 35,000 students in the 6th-largest school system in America to celebrate the festival.

The new school year would begin on Aug 1, 2025 and end June 3, 2026. Broward schools already take off for major Christian and Jewish holidays, and in recent years, Broward schools also take off for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr when it falls on a weekday.

In the past year, the school district received requests from community members to include Diwali. Though school board members were generally supportive of including Diwali as a day off, there were some logistical issues, according to the newspaper.

The fall semester is packed with holidays, including Labor Day, Veteran’s Day, two Jewish holidays, a weeklong Thanksgiving break and a two-week winter break. That posed a problem for middle school students to get the required hours in class, so their school days were slightly extended.

During a school board workshop, board member Rebecca Thompson asked if there was a legal issue with taking a day off school for a religious holiday. General Counsel Marilyn Batista said while government entities cannot prohibit or promote religion, it is permissible to recognize the holiday to promote diversity. “If you’re looking at Diwali as a cultural holiday, that’s a different story,” she said.

Local leaders and advocates celebrated the decision. Suhag Shukla, executive director of the Hindu American Foundation, praised the move, tweeting, “This is big! After NYC’s million students got a Diwali holiday thanks to Jenifer Rajkumar, now a quarter million Florida kids get to observe Diwali. Congratulations to the Broward County Hindu community for this historic vote!”

New York State Assemblywoman Jennifer Rajkumar, who successfully led the effort to make Diwali a school holiday in New York City, lauded Broward County’s action. “This is yet another momentous step toward recognizing South Asian culture in the fabric of American society,” she said.