Manatee County School Board to Adopt New Field Trip Policy

BRADENTON --The Manatee County School Board recently approved notice of intent for a new field trip policy which emphasizes that the value of any trip must be assessed in the context of the amount of classroom instruction time lost, risk to student safety, the potential contribution to student learning and cost to the individual student, the school district, and the community.

Field trips might soon face tougher criteria

”We believe that principals and teachers need a structure and format for field trips,“ said Superintendent Tim McGonegal. ”Field trips can be a source of liability if not followed with a structure.“

District field trip handbook was adopted as part of this policy. The purpose of the handbook is to provide information to school administrators and staff for planning and preparing field trips. Field trips have been classified into three categories along with timelines that establish the periods needed for requests, forms and information required before each type of field trip can be approved.

The value of any trip must be assessed in order to make sure they don’t pose a threat to student safety and that they accommodate the special needs of students with disabilities and medical needs. The trips must be directly related to the district’s strategic plan and have to be planned to achieve specific educational outcomes. The plan ensures organized excursion with the provision for adequate supervision which must be conducted in a manner that will not discredit the student, school staff or the School Board including a recommendation that boys and girls on overnight trips not only stay in separate rooms, but also on separate floors if possible.

”With tough financial times, all trips have to be evaluated when we start talking about missing school,“ said board member Harry Kinnan. ”This will make it easier to make sure things are done as the superintendent expects them to be done.“

The program would also require teachers to check with the school nurse to make certain children aren’t exposed to things they are allergic to.

Some in-county activities, such as club meetings and debate competitions, that are held at other in-county schools are not considered field trips and therefore, are not subject to the procedures.

However, school-organized ”fan buses“ in which students are transported to athletic competitions to support the team are not considered athletic events and therefore not exempt from the field-trip requirements. The grounds of this stipulation stem from the fact that fan buses are not organized by the school and are considered privately organized trips.

Athletic events are generally governed by rules of the Florida High School Athletic Association and rules and procedures established by the school Principal and coaching staff. Thus, they are not field trips. Any athletic events will be coordinated by the coaching staff.

The funding source of the field trip must be identified (inclusive of any costs to the students) and the field trip coordinator must insure that adequate funds are available to pay for the outing.

The school board will be answering question and comments about this issue before voting on it in the next couple of weeks.