The blonde girl in the number 46 track jersey was cut out of the film as much as possible due to being fired for refusing to fulfill the nudity requirements. Linnea Quigley was hired to replace her, and in a 2004 interview talked about her big break: "I got Graduation Day by going in and having to act scared. This other girl had already been cast as Dolores, but once she got on the set she refused to show her breasts, so they called me and I was scared too, but I wanted to do the film so badly, and back then it was like a huge no no to refuse to do nudity, so I guess I got lucky." It wasn't her first time to do nude scenes though as she had already been fully nude in previous films, including one where she played a 15-year old girl (she was 21 at the time) who danced naked during a movie audition.
The skating extras in the roller rink were paid five dollars each.
At the time of the film's release, there was a backlash from critics against the overabundance of slasher films being made. In a form of protest many critics refused to review any horror movies in hopes that the lack of print publicity would have a negative impact on the films' profits. As a result, Graduation Day did well upon its premiere in Los Angeles (which coincided with many schools' graduations), but not as well on the East Coast, where it received no reviews from critics whatsoever.
Director Herb Freed and producer David Baughn went to various movie theaters in California in person in order to ensure that they would show the trailer for this film.