Closing schools is challenging. It quickly becomes very political, as it involves numerous stakeholders who each have a different agenda. The focus should naturally be on optimizing outcomes for students, but the process can become so challenging that this goal can get obscured or lost. The need to close schools is often clear. Whether due to declining enrollment, fiscal mismanagement, or low academic performance, the need to make the decision is not ambiguous -- but how to navigate the process is certainly not. No matter the reason for closure, shuttering a school often leads to what one research team called "a period of mourning" (Gordon, 2018) for the school's families, administrators, and teachers. Indeed, school closure can be accompanied by fierce opposition from community leaders and other stakeholders. This policy brief shares two urban case studies: Chicago Public Schools and New York City Department of Education. Both districts closed dozens of schools between 2000 and 2014, and each used different methods and achieved different outcomes. These case studies illustrate that the outcomes of school closures vary, from negative academic impact in Chicago to positive gains in graduation rates and test scores in New York City. The important finding is that the "academic caliber of the schools into which the students move must be considerably higher than schools they left."