NEW YORK – Parents of students at New York’s P.S. 116 are complaining after school officials abolished homework and are encouraging students to instead focus on fun and family time.

“The topic of homework has received a lot of attention lately, and the negative effects of homework have been well established,” P.S. 116 Principal Jane Hsu told parents in a letter sent home with students last month, according to DNAinfo.com.

“They include: children’s frustration and exhaustion, lack of time for other activities and family time and, sadly for many, loss of interest in learning.”

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School officials have spent over a year “analyzing studies focused on the effects of traditional homework,” and concluded Pre-K through fifth grade students would be better off reading or playing – activities that “have been proven to have a positive impact on student academic performance and social/emotional development,” according to the letter.

The letter also encouraged parents to encourage their children to remain active in their new-found free time, and not let them simply watch television or play on a computer. DNAinfo reports the school’s leadership team decided to review the homework policy because too many students were forced to sit out recess for failing to complete homework assignments.

Many parents, however, don’t agree with the school’s new policy, and are threatening to remove their children from the school if officials don’t reconsider, according to the news site.

“They’ve decided that giving homework to younger ages isn’t viable. I don’t necessarily agree. I think they should have homework – some of it is about discipline. I want (my daughter) to have fun, but I also want her to be working toward a goal,” Daniel Tasman, father of a P.S. 116 second-grader, told DNAinfo.

The new homework policy convinced Tasman to enter his daughter in a charter school lottery.

“I was just thinking maybe I’ll keep my daughter here for another year, but this pushed me over the edge,” he said, according to the news site.

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Other parents like Lamia Baraka are concerned they’ll lose touch with what their children are learning in school if they’re not bringing work home.

“Without homework we don’t have any clue what they’re taking at school,” Baraka told PIX 11. “It’s very hard to follow up with the kids.”

Her daughter, second-grader Maya Baraka, is also opposed to the new policy.

“You won’t learn anything,” she said.

Marwa Keshk, a mother of two at P.S. 116, believes “families are suffering from not having any more homework.”

Keshk’s dauther is now “spending more time in front of the TV, in her room, playing,” she told PIX 11.

Other parents are coping with the policy by assigning their own homework to fill in the void.

“This is their time to learn now, when they have a good memory,” a parent of a P.S. third-grader, identified only as Stanley, told DNAinfo.

“I give him extra work, though,” Stanley said. “I go to Barnes & Nobles and give him my own homework.”

DNAinfo inquired about the new no-homework policy, and school officials responded with a prepared statement which essentially said students do have homework – to go home and play and talk with their families.

“We are excited that we are redefining the landscape of homework – but we are certainly not eliminating homework,” Hsu wrote.

“We are creating opportunities for students and their families to engage in activities that research has proven to benefit academic and social-emotional success in the elementary grades,” the statement read. “We look forward to seeing the positive impact our newly-designed homework options will have on our students and their families.”