Field Trips

“Our field trips are an opportunity for you to enter into the world of mystical power,” -Fredrich Lenz.

To most kids, he couldn’t be more right. But lately, in the aftermath of the pandemic, field trips have been put on hold. People in the Lower Merion School District are wondering, why? Keep reading and you’ll find out!
Recently, I spoke with a member in the front office of WVMS, Ms. Fruit. She said that there were many changes in the way school field trips were dealt with. A main reason was that any field trip that was not in a course of study.
For example, a course of study trip would be a math-based trip to a college or going to a museum to learn about King Tut, it has to be approved by the Director of Elementary or Secondary Education. Ms. Fruit mentioned that this approval requirement was slowed down during COVID. Since the steps became harder amid the pandemic. This means that going to things like Get Air or a tour of a summer camp would most likely not happen anymore.
Another reason that field trips were postponed is that we have limited staffing. As you may know, you need one nurse for a field trip. This was hard to get during the Coronavirus, as you needed nurses on hand for COVID tests. Also, transportation is needed, so a bus driver needs to be pulled as well. Bus drivers also were at a shortage during the pandemic and continue to be in short supply.
Those are the main two reasons, but there are other things to note:

Parents must be notified before the trip
Parents can petition to ban the trip from happening if they don’t like it
Adult to student ratio is needed. For middle school, 2 adults per class is needed. There are usually not enough chaperones
Destination has to be accessible for people with disabilities
Emergency contact-holding chaperone needed
A week in advance, a transportation notice is sent
Only when public school is in session can it happen
If the bus/nurse cannot go, then no trip
No trips after June 1st unless specific reasoning
No field trips before 9:40 AM to 2:00 PM so that buses can do their rounds

So what do you think? Does the school have good reasons for things to be banned? I don’t know. But that Fredrich guy sure knew what he was talking about.