| Van Buren Intermediate School District |
| Bylaws & Policies |
2340 - FIELD AND OTHER DISTRICT-SPONSORED TRIPS
The Board of Education recognizes that field trips, when used for teaching and learning integral to a course of study or IEP, are an educationally sound and important ingredient in the instructional program. 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 can be defined as any planned journey other than community based instruction by one or more students away from District premises, which is under the supervision of a professional staff member and an integral part of a course of study or IEP.
Other District-sponsored trips shall be defined as any planned, student travel activity which is approved as part of the District's total educational program.
The Superintendent shall approve those trips which take students out-of-state or are planned to keep students out of the District overnight or longer.
The appropriate director shall approve all other 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 field trips remain under the supervision of this Board and are subject to its administrative guidelines.
The Board does not endorse, support, or assume liability in any way for any staff member, volunteer, or parent of the District who takes students on trips not approved by the Board or Superintendent. No staff member may solicit students of this District or those from a constituent local district for such trips within the facilities or on the grounds of the District or within nondistrict facilities used for District programs without permission of the Superintendent. Permission to solicit neither grants nor implies approval of the trip. Such approval must be obtained in accordance with the District's Administrative Guidelines for Extended Trips.
The Superintendent shall prepare administrative guidelines for the operation of both field and other District-sponsored trips.
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 field trip is altered, the professional staff member in charge shall notify the administrative superior immediately.
M.C.L.A. 380.1282, 380.1331