IJOA - Field Trips and Excursions
Date Adopted: 2 November 1988
Current Review / Revision: 14 May 2025
The Emery County School District Board of Education recognizes that education can take place in a variety of settings and therefore it supports field trips, excursions, and leadership opportunities within the limits of available resources.
Field trips should serve an educational purpose. The teacher(s) desiring a field trip shall make a formal request to the principal. The principal will review the request and determine if the activities are appropriate to the curriculum. Field trips are to have an educational objective and are to be limited to activities relating directly to the specified objective. Teachers should look for appropriate field trip activities where the educational objectives can be accomplished with the least amount of travel. When the principal approves a field trip, he/she must submit to the appropriate Supervisor a bus request using the District electronic request form. The Supervisor will forward the request to the Transportation Department who will make the final determination in regard to the request.
Schools will be assigned a set number of field trips per year as shown below. Field trip allotments will be reviewed every three years, or sooner if extenuating circumstances exist. Mileage beyond the schools’ allotment will be billed to the school at the current cost-per-mile rate to operate a school bus. School principals are to work with the school faculty to prioritize and schedule student trips for the school year.
At the discretion of the school district administration, there will be established rules governing field trips and excursions. Such rules shall include, distance limits, time restrictions, supervision, and other rules as needed to insure the safety of students and ensuring efficient transportation, responsible allocation of funds, and the overall well-being of the transportation department.
The Board does not encourage out-of-state trips, but on occasion, it may be appropriate for student groups (band, FFA, chorus, etc.) to make out-of-state (contiguous 48 states and Canada only) excursions for competitions, learning activities, etc. Groups must submit a formal application through their principal. If approved, the principal will recommend the trip to the superintendent, who then will make a recommendation to the Board. The Board has final approval or disapproval of such excursions.
The approval of all transportation requests will be based upon the following conditions:
a) Absence from school will not exceed three (3) days. Missed work must be made up.
b) Travel arrangements (land, air) are appropriate for the weather, the time limits and distance involved.
c) The District will make no financial commitments beyond the actual cost of the use of District-owned buses to make the excursion. All other costs will be borne by the participants, including airfare or chartered buses, if they are used.
d) The educational value must be clearly defined.
e) Adequate overnight accommodations must be reserved and parents informed as to how they may contact students.
f) Written parental consent must be obtained for each student participating in school activities. Parent(s) will be notified at time of registration that excursions are not required and student grades will not be affected by non-participation.
g) Adequate coverage for the teacher’s classes must be arranged.
h) OUT OF STATE TRIPS: If excursion is out of state, groups will need to use other transportation using the state approved rental services. The sponsoring group will insure that the transport carrier demonstrates adequate liability insurance by providing written copies of such insurance.
i) No student will be compelled or have pressure (reduction of grade, etc) placed upon him/her to participate in the excursion.
j) A complete itinerary of travel and schedule of activities must be submitted, including dates, times and places.
k) The intended excursion must be capable of providing an experience that could not be provided in Utah.
l) Excursions which are not approved or sponsored by the District may not use the name of a school or the District and should indicate in their literature that they are not school sponsored.
Field Trip Guidelines
a) Adequate supervision is to be provided for all field trips and excursions. Generally, chaperones will be required for all field trips and excursions at a ratio of one (1) adult to every twelve (12) students – (one (1) to eight (8) chaperone to student ratio for any approved secondary overnight trips). Exceptions to this ratio include K-12 school-to-school trips and secondary school excursions taken within the boundaries of the School District. These trips require that teachers, advisors, and/or coaches be on the bus with the students. All elementary field trips, other than school-to-school trips within the School District boundaries, require twelve (12) to one (1) student to teacher ratio.
b) The goal for all secondary trips outside the District should be the twenty (20) to one (1) ratio. However, a secondary trip may proceed when, in the judgment of the principal and the teacher, a reasonable number of chaperones are available to adequately supervise the trip being taken. In these cases special consideration should be given to the type of trip, including the specific destination, number of stops, and types of activities in which the students will be engaged. Deviation from the twenty (20) to one (1) ratio should be rare and not the norm.
c) Advisors/Chaperones are to be given specific instructions regarding their supervision responsibilities and are to be informed of any possible safety or health concerns related to the specific trip being taken. Bus drivers may be requested to help with discipline, but the driver’s main responsibility is to drive the bus to and from the destination as safely and expeditiously as possible.
d) Students are to be given specific instruction concerning learning outcomes as well as behavioral expectations for the specific field trip.
e) Once a field trip or excursion is underway, no student is to be removed from the bus and left unsupervised. Students are to be adequately supervised until returning from the trip or being released to their parent/guardian. Students who leave on the bus to participate in a field trip or excursion are to return on the bus unless released by their parent/guardian, in writing, or by phone, to return by some other means.
f) All students are to be accounted for prior to leaving a field trip destination and a bus check is to be made at the end of each trip to make sure students are not left on the bus.
g) If a field trip ends after normal school classes have concluded, supervisors, teachers/advisors are to remain at school until all students are picked up.
h) Non-school aged children and students not part of the grade, course, team or school group for which the field
trip or excursion is scheduled, may not participate in the trip or travel on the bus.
i) If space on the bus allows, a spouse of the driver may accompany the driver on the trip. The District will not cover any expenses for the spouse.
Field Trip Allowances
Elementary Grades K-3: For transportation dept purposes, the elementary field trips should not extend beyond regular route times.
All field trips that exceed the yearly allotment must be formally submitted to the principal. If approved, the school would be responsible to fund the cost of the field trip.
Base Miles
Base miles will be established for each school for the field trips that are not separately board approved which would include the extracurricular regional athletic activities. Typical base miles would be for curricular, co-curricular, clubs, student council, grade field trips, and positive reward activities.
Emery High 25,500
Green River High 4,800
Canyon View Middle 8,000
San Rafael Middle 9,000
Bookcliff Elementary 2,000
Castle Dale Elementary 1,800
Cleveland Elementary 1,800
Cottonwood Elementary 1,800
Ferron Elementary 2,200
Huntington Elementary 2,000
In the event a school goes over the Base Miles listed above, the school will reimburse the District from school funds to cover the cost at a rate of $5 / mile starting with the 2025-2026 school year. The Base Miles and cost / mile will be reevaluated every 3 years starting with 2025-2026.
Previous Revision 3 October 2012