Boarding School Graduations

In light of the growing concerns about the evolving global outbreak of COVID-19, what do you think the boarding schools and colleges will do regarding the upcoming 2020 graduations particularly when so many students/parents/families come from countries and territories assessed as Level 3 by the CDC (Mainland China, South Korea and Japan)? Will having so many parents/families from those three countries pose a health threat to their community and students or not?

Well maybe by the time of graduation, the virus would have spread so extensively in the US that it wouldn’t matter…

DD20’s school has canceled all tours and visits from the affected areas. In addition, notification has gone out that if the students go home for spring break, they will not be able to return to campus until they have undergone quarantine. As an alternate the campus will remain open with mandatory programming for those who are not traveling home for break at an additional fee. For family weekend last weekend we were informed that the campus is now a handshaking free community. Graduation is always live streamed so my guess is that if things don’t change, they will continue with the plan to not allow families from the affected areas onto the campus and to have them watch graduation live stream. As a parent my heart goes out to them but I understand that the campus must be protected.

Any large gathering will be a great breeding ground for the virus. Many companies and universities are starting to ban their employees/students from traveling, or gathering in large settings.

Exeter has cancelled the event for the admitted students this year.

Good question - I have two seniors graduating in May (one high school, one college). Our BS is quarantining students returning from those areas off campus post spring break. However, my feeling is that it is likely the US will have just as many cases as Italy and others in a few weeks (hopefully I’m wrong) and this may change how graduations play out at colleges and schools. I’m also wondering about the safety of bringing healthy senior grandparents to these events as the CDC.