2340 - FIELD AND OTHER CORPORATION-SPONSORED TRIPS

Greenwood Community School Corporation

Bylaws & Policies

2340 - FIELD AND OTHER CORPORATION-SPONSORED TRIPS

The School Board recognizes that field trips, when used for teaching and learning integral to the curriculum, are an educationally sound and important ingredient in the instructional program of the schools. Properly planned and executed field trips should:

	A.	supplement and enrich classroom procedures by providing learning experiences in an environment outside the schools;
	B.	arouse new interests among students;
	C.	help students relate school experiences to the reality of the world outside of school;
	D.	bring the resources of the community - natural, artistic, industrial, commercial, governmental, educational - within the student's learning experience;
	E.	afford students the opportunity to study real things and real processes in their actual environment.

For purposes of this policy, a field trip shall be defined as any planned journey for one or more students away from Corporation premises, which is under the supervision of a professional staff member and an integral part of a course of study. Other Corporation-sponsored trips shall be defined as any planned student-travel activity which is approved as part of the Corporation's total educational program.

The Board shall approve those field trips and other Corporation-sponsored trips which take students out of State or keep students out of the Corporation overnight or longer.

The Superintendent shall approve all other such trips.

Students may be charged reasonable fees for field trips but no student shall be denied participation for financial inability, nor shall nonparticipation be penalized academically.

Students on all Corporation-sponsored trips remain under the supervision of this Board and are subject to the Corporation's administrative guidelines.

The Board does not endorse, support, or assume liability in any way for any staff member, volunteer, or parent of the Corporation who takes students on trips not approved by the Board or Superintendent. No staff member may solicit students of this Corporation for such trips within the facilities or on the school grounds of the Corporation without Board permission. Permission to solicit neither grants nor implies approval of the trip. Such approval must be obtained in accordance with the Corporation's Administrative Guidelines for Extended Trips.

The Superintendent shall prepare administrative guidelines for the operation of both field and other Corporation-sponsored trips, including athletic trips, which shall ensure:

	A.	the safety and well-being of students;
	B.	parental permission is sought and obtained before any student leaves the Corporation on a trip;
	C.	each trip is properly planned, and if a field trip, is integrated with the curriculum, evaluated, and followed up by appropriate activities which enhance its usefulness;
	D.	each trip is properly monitored;
	E.	student behavior while on all field trips complies with the Student Code of Conduct and on all other trips complies with an approved code of conduct for the trip;
	F.	a copy of each student's Emergency Medical Authorization Form is in the possession of the staff member in charge;

A professional staff member shall not change a planned itinerary while the trip is in progress, except where the health, safety, or welfare of the students in his/her charge is imperiled or where changes or substitutions beyond his/her control have frustrated the purpose of the trip.

In any instance in which the itinerary of a trip is altered, the professional staff member in charge shall notify the administrative superior immediately.

Pursuant to State law, school busses may be used if the trip does not involve more than 200 miles out of state.

I.C. 20-27-9-3