Graduation Ceremonies
Latest Update May 29, 2020
*This guidance is subject to change, please check back frequently.
If you have questions about this guidance or would like more information please email healthinfo@mesacounty.us.
Important things to know
A new public health order in Mesa County outlines the next steps for our reopening. This phase expands upon the current guidelines to allow:
- Up to 50% capacity not to exceed more than 175 people in a confined indoor space for critical and noncritical businesses, including houses of worship.
- Gatherings to expand to 50 people.
The order includes a requirement that operational plans be submitted to Mesa County Public Health. Complete the form here. Mesa County’s variance allows continued reopening a limited capacity, with social distancing precautions in place. This is complementary to State Public Health Order 20-28, Executive Order D 2020 079 and should not be relied on solely.
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Considerations for graduations:
- Ceremony plans can include a virtual option for family members.
- Hold ceremonies in a staggered manner as late into the spring or summer as possible to allow for the evaluation of current loosening of physical distancing practices.
- Consider a full virtual ceremony if adhering to the maximum-person limit is prohibitive.
- Have a weather contingency plan for outside ceremonies should a transition to virtual-only or tents be necessary.
- All students and staff MUST maintain 6 feet physical distancing at all times including entering and exiting the ceremony.
- Vulnerable individuals should remain at home.
- Individuals who are sick must remain at home.
- Screen participants for fever and symptoms before entering.
- If outside facilities cannot accommodate the 6 feet distancing, graduation ceremonies need to be done in the number of shifts that would allow for distancing.
- All students and staff should be in masks with the exception of individual photographs by an official photographer while physical distancing from others.
- Develop a system for no touch or contact receipt of the diploma, such as presentation on a table by staff to be picked up by the student.
- Organizers should incorporate an inclusionary plan for accommodating families or students not wishing to or who are unable to participate in person.
- Sharing or exchanging materials of any kind poses an increased risk for transmission/spread of COVID-19 and must not occur. (Throwing graduation caps, "Sign-in" practices, gifts, flowers, etc).
Best Practices for Implementation
- Football Stadiums or Larger Arenas: This would include limiting guests to the current mass gathering guidance, considerations for accommodations for a reasonable expansion to the current large venues/events guidance, or considering a percentage of capacity limits for the facility; all would require physical distancing be achieved by spacing out families (every three rows in the stadium) and seating graduates 6-feet apart. Special attention should also be paid to restroom facilities, entrances, and other areas where graduates may be tempted to gather before or after the ceremony. Weather should be a factor in this decision.
- Drive-ins or Similar: Families may arrive, and remain seated in cars, which allows for minimal physical engagement. This can be done at drive-ins, large parking lots (like malls), or similar. Weather considerations related to heat and rain should be addressed, especially as all cars would need to be turned off in order to conduct the ceremony. Safe walking pathways would need to be outlined for graduates to exit the vehicles and safely collect their diplomas. Similarly, large projected screens and sound equipment may be required. Further, students and families without vehicles would need alternative seating and transportation.
- Increase the Number and Decrease the Size: Instead of hosting one ceremony, host a series of smaller ceremonies in the same venue. This would be conducted similar to a traditional school day, where students would have six blocks of classes, for example. This would allow smaller cohorts of the graduating class to participate in a ceremony, with that ceremony repeated 2+ times to accommodate all high school graduates and any permitted guests. That ceremony would be repeated to accommodate the full size of the graduating class. For very large classes, this could mean 6 – 12 ceremonies. Schools may want to create consistency by pre-recording speeches and students walking across the stage, and then asking for support to splice those videos together into one, comprehensive keepsake ceremony video.
- Individualized Ceremony: Schedule students to arrive in waves that allows them to walk in front of the school and families to walk on the sidewalk or drive-by in cars to take pictures. This would require precise scheduling, traffic control, etc. and may be appropriate for smaller graduating classes in less trafficked areas.
- Video Recording: Footage of a live ceremony involving fewer than 10 graduates could be broadcast on local public access television, local radio or streamed for families on Facebook Live or YouTube.
Additional ways to honor seniors
- Ask seniors to send individual videos with short messages to their graduating classmates. This, with the traditional filmed speeches by invited speakers, creates a longer film highlighting the graduates’ high school experiences and provides a long-term memento.
- Highlight seniors on social media each day with special hashtags that allow for family, friends, and community members to congratulate individual students (who agree to participate) with photos and messages.
- Secure a digital billboard and display messages directly from graduates to his or her class. Expand that to include messages from families and friends to graduates as well.
- Work with local city or county officials to block off a road. Allow the senior and 1-2 family members to stand along the road (physically distanced) and have school or district personnel present the diplomas. Timing, size of class, and environmental contexts should be considered.
- Postpone the graduation (and subsequent proms) until later this summer or fall, or host them in one year as an “early reunion.”
Staging Considerations
For health and safety:
- Mark the standing locations of graduates waiting in line to collect their diplomas.
- Position any graduate seating at appropriate distances, so that chairs are distanced 6 feet from one another in all directions.
- Consider the processional and support required to maintain acceptable distance.
- Consider how diplomas will be collected when a student’s name is called. Staff may consider placing the diploma on a table for the student to collect. Students may choose to walk across the stage, collect the diploma from the table, and pose for a picture individually or appropriately distanced from a school/district official.
- Set expectations, policies and guidelines in advance, and reiterate those before the ceremony day and at the start of the ceremony, to ensure overall health and safety.
- Consider timing of when ceremonies take place:
- If ceremonies are held outdoors over the summer, sun exposure and heat should be considered, and appropriate precautions should be taken related to shade, availability of water, etc.
- If ceremonies are delayed or postponed, appropriate information should be collected to ensure all graduates are informed and able to attend with advanced notice. Consideration could be given to merging graduations in the future.
For group sizes:
- If large groups are entering/exiting a space, it will be difficult to manage appropriate distancing.
- It will be important to consider the use of restrooms and access to those facilities. Procedures should be put into place to limit crowding, and arrangements should be made to accommodate crowd size.
- Ceremonies may need additional staff to enforce safety guidelines.
- Spacing should be marked in advance to calculate capacity, number of ceremonies needed, etc.
- Districts and schools may want to limit attendance as a way to control for crowd size, and then broadcast the ceremony (or provide online) for others.
- Expectations and procedures related to photography will be important, in order to limit or prevent guests from crowding near the stage to take pictures. Schools and districts may want to have someone taking multiple pictures of all graduates and providing them free of charge to families in order to reduce concern of missing the important moments.
Our Path Forward: Stay the Course
Efforts to limit the spread of COVID-19 will continue for several months. It’s important for residents to continue to focus on preventive measures to slow the spread. By minimizing contact between people, we ask that all residents follow the letter and spirit of the guidance. Do not try to bend the rules or find loopholes. It’s up to us all to keep our community protected and healthy.
With residents following the guidelines outlined, Mesa County Public Health is able to effectively conduct contact tracing and investigation to ensure COVID-19 and COVID like illness in our community remain at a manageable level. We continue to work with high-risk settings (nursing homes, correctional facilities, homeless service providers) where outbreaks can have devastating effects.
Testing is available for those in our community who are experiencing symptoms. If you are feeling sick. contact your healthcare provider, or call the MCPH hotline at 970-683-2300.