City schools might close for St. Patrick's Day this year.
State Sen. Tony Avella, from Queens, introduced a bill to close schools after parents complained that using March 17 to hold parent-teacher conferences was unfair to people who wanted to march in or attend New York's annual St. Patrick's Day Parade.
It would be the latest new addition to the school calendar in an effort to recognize the diversity of the city.
February 2016 also marked the city's first closure in observance of the Lunar New Year.
If the bill passes, it would make St. Patrick's Day an official school holiday for any city school district with more than 1 million people and an Irish-American population of at least 7.5 percent.