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Here's a few hints to help with trip planning.
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| 1. When planning a class or school trip plan to
take along a medical professional. |
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| If your budget allows for it, and you need another
chaperone on the trip, consider asking your school nurse to
go along on the trip with you. Other alternatives could be
the parent of a student in the class that is a nurse or
physician. You will not have to worry as much about
what to do if a student gets sick after you leave. If at all
possible always take the school nurse on the trip. They have
liability coverage through the school just in case something
goes wrong. |
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| 2. Plan ahead and make sure your chaperones are
kept busy during the trip. |
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| Taking more chaperones on trip than you need is not
necessarily a good thing. Sometimes adults can be even more
of a pain than the students can, especially if that adult
looks at the class trip as a vacation for themselves rather
than as an educational experience for the students. |
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| 3. School trip chaperones should be provided
with a guidebook. |
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| Make a planning packet specifically for your trip's
chaperones that spells out your expectations, their duties,
and a more in-depth itinerary than the one you give to the
students. You should also include in this guidebook a trip
roommate listing, airline flight assignments, travel agent
emergency numbers, and cell phone numbers for you and your
trip nurse. |
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| 4. Always have an emergency plan in place for
your trip participants |
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| Give each student a wallet sized card with cell phone
numbers, and other important information to use on the
chance that they get separated from the group. Tell your
students to present this card to only to a police officer or
someone they believe they can trust and to only use it if
needed. |
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| 5. ALWAYS have a discipline plan set up for your
class or school group. |
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| The ultimate punishment that can be written into a trip
conduct code is to send the student home early. You have to
have a chaperone that has agreed in advance to take this
student home. This undesirable duty is only if the need
arise, since that chaperone losses part of the benefit of
the trip. It sends a very strong signal to the rest of
the group, and since then I have never had another problem
on any other trip. In my opinion, this is the ideal way to
handle things if the need arises. Dealing with these issues is never a fun task, however, having a well thought out plan that the participants and their parents agree to limits your liability and your stress. |
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| Remember to give each student a wallet sized card with
cell phone numbers, and other important information to use
on the chance that they get separated from the group. Tell
your students to present this card to only to a police
officer or someone they believe they can trust and to only
use it if needed. |
