School-Sponsored Travel: 10 Tips to Make Your Programs Safer

School-sponsored travel offers students extraordinary opportunities, but this deep learning is not without risk. Thoughtful planning, clear expectations, and careful oversight are essential to ensure that school-sponsored trips are as successful as they are enriching. Here are 10 tips to make your programs safer:

• • Have a procedure in place to vet all trip plans in advance, and do not commit any funds or enter into any agreements until all plans have been reviewed. Consider the goals of the trip and its ties to the curriculum and the school’s mission. Evaluate activities, locations, vendors, and chaperone plans. Thoroughly check that all third-party vendors are reputable and have adequate insurance and credentialing.   
  • Evaluate local circumstances. Research trip locations in advance to identify any political unrest or other potentially volatile situations. Check the State Department website for travel advisories and CDC website for information on disease outbreaks or other health concerns. Consider whether the school will require measures such as particular vaccines, sunscreen, bug spray, or anti-malarial medication. 
  • Make copies of all travelers’ official documents. Ensure that students, chaperones, and back-up chaperones have valid, non-expired identification forms (such as drivers’ licenses, passports) and visas. Photocopies should be kept in a secure location at the school. 
  • Articulate behavioral expectations clearly in advance. Ensure that students understand the rules and consider having both students and their parents sign a behavior agreement. Clearly explain how discipline will be handled and the consequences that will be applied. Pay particular attention to alcohol and drugs that may be procured legally by students in some areas. Make sure students are familiar  with local customs and laws in the places to be visited (i.e., chewing gum in Singapore, jaywalking in Germany, etc.)
  • Create detailed permission slips. Clearly state the educational purpose of the trip, the location(s) to be visited, transportation method(s), and the supervising staff member. Include a statement of informed consent, acknowledgment of potential risks, and a liability waiver in language that is as clear as possible. 
  • Vet and train chaperones well. Schools often assign one chaperone for every three to five students, but assess the specific circumstances of your school’s trips to determine the most appropriate ratio. Conduct appropriate background checks on chaperones. Be clear about expectations, and train chaperones how to handle a variety of situations. 
  • Ensure that the trip is appropriately insured. Consider what forms of insurance are most appropriate for the trip and whether the school or a third-party vendor should be the policy holder. Evaluate insurance for chaperones and determine whether students need to carry additional insurance of their own (i.e., supplemental medical, travel, evacuation, etc.)
  • Plan for a variety of emergencies. Determine what the trip leaders would do in the case of a natural disaster, accident, or other emergency. Develop plans for both evacuation and sheltering in place. Because illness and accidents are the most likely emergencies on school trips, research where the local hospitals are for all segments of the trip. Have a backup plan in case one chaperone needs to remain in a location with a student or students while the rest of the group continues on the trip. 
  • Establish strong communication protocols. Chaperones and the school should have telephone numbers for all students, parents, emergency contacts, and other chaperones. Develop a protocol for the circumstances under which chaperones will communicate with the school or parents (i.e., regular check ins, rule violations, illness, etc.). Consider establishing an emergency call-in number in case trip participants get separated. Determine how the trip influences the school’s standard policies about teachers and students texting or telephoning one another. 
• Develop a process for releasing students to their families at the end of the trip. During the regular school day, pick up and drop off are among the most dangerous times of the day. After a school trip, students’ may be tired, excited, and less attuned to traffic and other dangers. Make sure that the rendezvous point is well-lit and that a chaperone remains at the site until all students are picked up. Students should be released only to their parents or guardians unless the school has written permission that the child can be released to another adult. 
   
  
  By approaching school-sponsored travel with the same rigor applied to any other school program, leaders can significantly reduce risk while preserving the powerful benefits of experiential learning.
  
  NOTE: This article is for informational purposes only and should not be considered legal advice. Schools should consult their own legal counsel to evaluate specific situations.