$53 for field trip

[sorul82?]

My DH and DS10 are in DC right now on a two-day field trip. The cost was $175 per person. We did have a fundraiser before Christmas that reduced our cost somewhere around $100.

 

[Lady V]

well---i guess I am lucky!! my DS has a field trip on thursday and counting the bus and all it is only 12$. this covers me as well.

 

[delmar411]

well---i guess I am lucky!! my DS has a field trip on thursday and counting the bus and all it is only 12$. this covers me as well.

We're lucky as well! DD has had 3 field trips in the last 2 weeks, 2 were free through grants and the other was like $5-10 but we were at WDW anyway so she didn't go on it.

 

[nena]

Maybe I can help put some of the cost in perspective. We live 30 miles from the Monterey Bay Aquarium, but on the bus it takes 45 minutes. A bus costs $600!!! Why? Because it covers gas, mileage, overtime and insurance benefits for the driver.
So we ask for a $10 donation to cover the bus and admission is free. What drives me crazy is the fact that we ask for the bus at 8:30 and then it doesnt arrive until 9:20. If we are paying, then they should be on time!!
To top it off, on friday when we went, we also got pulled over. Try explaining that to 66 Kindergarteners!!!

 

[DisneygirlTeacher]

As a teacher I can tell you the price of field trips is due to the high cost of gas. When we use school buses they charge us a ridiculous amount. I have cut way down on what I take my classes on because many children can not afford it and I pay for them myself, and that gets expensive. My daughter has gone on two "big" field trips when she was in 7th and 8th grade. Once they went to Key West (we live in Florida) and once to Washington D.C. They both were very expensive but she still talks about them both and they are lifetime memories. I do agree that the cost can get too high and so I stick to about $5 or $6 in our own town to see a play or go to a museum....and if I get a signed permission slip from a parent and they can not pay I gladly do it. I just can not exclude a child because their parent can't afford it. Fact of life for a teacher, I guess.....

 

[ceecee]

We go to Cosi in 4th grade here and it was free for the kids. I only paid $8.00 (chaperone). Plus any sovvies or snacks they wanted, they brought a brown bag lunch.
The 6th grade trip is the zoo and the kids each pay $1.00 and bring a lunch, chaperones pay $6.00 plus $6.50 parking (not enough room on the buses). The PTO does pick up the cost of gas, etc. We are an hour from Cosi and 45 min. from the Cincinnati Zoo.

 

[ceecee]

When we took our Girl Scouts, it cost $35.00 for the overnight, that's just Cosi's cost and no gas is included!

 

[tinytink]

That sounds about right with the cost of admission being $23, gas in our area is up to $4.05 per gallon and if you are driving a bus you are not getting very many MPG so if you're 100 away that is where your $$ is really going. Some schools do fundraisers, bake sales etc to help cut down the cost and some just charge the parents. I can understand the snack and meal issue because with all the allergies out there it's hard to accomodate everyone. I know this because I have a child with allergies and it's a pain to check snack at her preschool. Each child takes turn bringing in snack for the whole classs and that means I have to wait for that child to arrive, check, approve/disapprove, and provide an alternate if my child can't have it. That is just life and the price hike is called inflation. I would love to pay last years prices for my gas, groceries, utilities, basically everything but as we are all painfully aware it keep going up and up.

 

[victorandbellasmom]

Wow, the prices everyone's throwing out for their kids's fieldtrip boggles my mind. Can I assume you all are sending your kids to private schools and that accounts for $$$? My kids are in a public elementary school. Our PTSA covers bus/transportation and parents are encouraged to pay for the entrance cost of the fieldtrip, if assistance is needed $$$ our PTSA will cover that child's cost. We have never spent more than $10 per child and their fieldtrip include going to our local zoo, aquarium, science center, watching a live storybook theatre production and watching asian acrobatics. We don't do overnight fieldtrips at this school. It seems as though most of you also live in the east coast and there's just so much historical sites there.

 

[wowsmom]

Ok, my DS is in 5th grade. The 5th grade here take a week long trip (leave Monday morning and come back Friday at lunch) to Outdoor Science School. I am pretty sure that only one child did not attend. The cost of this field trip is $285 per child. That does include three home-cooked meals per day. (My son did that say that they food was really good) They also had to pay for the bus, but the kids paid for that with ice cream sales at the school store.

My son did OSS this year, too. Our cost was $335.

There was no school fundraising done...and thankfully, no poison oak! But he had very very dirty feet when he got home and actually wanted to take a shower. And he had a wonderful time.

ETA: Victorandbellasmom, we're actually at a public school...but we live in a fairly wealthy area. I'm not sure what the school would say if people said they couldn't afford it...we've always just managed to find the money for the kids to go on the trips. It's quite a change from where we used to live, where about 25% of the school's population got free lunch....and we had no field trips at all.

 

[lpandorf]

My daughter goes to public school and her 2nd grade field trip downtown to the aquarium this week was either $6 or $8 and she's supposed to bring a packed lunch. My son goes to preschool and we are going to the zoo in May and the cost is $18 and that covers me, too. And we bring packed lunches and eat at the picnic tables. I am not looking forward to the 8th grade field trip, however. They go to Washington DC and fly. I can't wait to see the price of that. While I'm sure it will be education and a great memory I think it is excessive for a school trip.

 

[barkley]

my dd leaves for a week at outdoor school on monday. the total cost (including all meals) is $95.00. the school carpools to the location and the distance is over 100 miles round trip-but i know that a portion of the fee we pay is to help with gas for those who drive. the trip is voluntary and if a parent does'nt wish for their child to attend they basicly get a week off school. we are notified of this expense 9 months ahead of time (when we register in the summer), so people often pay an extra 10.00 a month on their tuition so it's paid for when it comes around-the school does not believe in doing fund raisers.

my kids attend a small private school that realy tries not to charge for field trips. they do their best to keep on alert for free opportunities like the day in the late spring when the county fair opens it's door just for the local schools (they don't have the rides going-it's the exhibitions and agricultural areas). they have gone to a couple of exhibits at the museum in spokane, but they've taken advantage of very reduced price tickets so the most we've ever paid is maybe 5.00 (and if a parent cannot pay for those trips, the school picks up the cost).

 

[cats mom]

Sore subject for me.
No recent field trip numbers... but I hate bus fees!

Our extracurricular transportation fees for just one child this year:
Cheer: $150
Track: $85

If we had DD ride the bus to/from school: $401


Before anyone asks... yes, it's a public school and we live within the normal bussing boundaries.

 

[powellrj]

Thats pretty standard now for public school field trips. When my oldest went on field trips, they usually took school busses which kept the costs down. Now the trend seems to be to take large tour busses for even short trips. DD is going to a dinner theater next month and the cost is $55. The ticket prices are $23, so they are paying $32 to take a bus on a hour trip.

DS just got back from a 4 day trip to WDW. They took a bus and only 2 meals were paid for and the cost was over $800 per child. The same child was suppose to fly down 4 years ago for a school sponsored chess met. They were flying down and the cost was only $450 per child.

 

[torinsmom]

My son has had field trips that were $100(overnights) including food, but we were always notified at least 2 months in advance. There were fundraising activities that reduced the cost for those who participated. They would have raffles of donated items, sell donuts, sell popsicles after school etc. To me, it was worth it, because the kids got to see their classmates as more of a community than they do in the classroom.

In middle school, they go camping 2 times a year for 2 nights each. I think the cost is $20 for camping fees and food. We are a charter school and only have one bus, so parents drive kids as well.

Marsha

 

[Todd&Copper]

Gas cost alot more now than when your other child went.

But even assuming gas prices doubles in the two intervening years, why wouldn't the cost be more along the lines of $25 - 35, given that the previous trip was $13.50?

 

[hubermom3]

My DD's also go to public school. Our school used to do the COSI trip but stopped a few years ago because of the cost. We are just north of Detroit and they said the cost of the bus would be too expensive. I am paying $65 for my DD12 to go to a day camp field trip and then in 8th grade she will take a trip to Washington DC and that costs about $500.

 

[Our 2 Princesses]

Wow my DD9 in 4th grade brought home a permission slip for a field trip to Cosi (science center in Columbus, OH) in May..the cost is $53 We are about 100 miles away so they are renting a bus..I went on the website and it's about $23 for admission (i'm sure less cause they should get a group discount) for the various exhibits and movies I think they will be viewing then another $30 for the bus & gas? Geez my oldest daughter did this same field trip 2 years ago and I paid 13.50. At first I thought the $53 fee was for the parent and child, but on closer inspection saw it's 53 just for the child. I can't imagine how many kids will not get to go on this field trip, that is kinda steep.
Oh and the kids are packing their own lunch but supposed to get a healthy snack on the way home provided. I can't remember if other daughter got that or not
Has anyone else ever paid that much for a school day field trip?

Just two weekends ago my dd age 12 was supposed to go overnight to COSI for her field trip. (We live in Columbus.) It was $36 for each child and each chaperone. We were not going to let our dd go alone overnight so that cost us $72. Well, wouldn't you know it, the day of her field trip, my dd got strep throat. So, I called the school asking for a refund and they said COSI couldn't refund the money but could give us $72 worth of COSI dollars. Ugh!! Just what we needed!

 

[NMW]

Thats pretty standard now for public school field trips. When my oldest went on field trips, they usually took school busses which kept the costs down. Now the trend seems to be to take large tour busses for even short trips. DD is going to a dinner theater next month and the cost is $55. The ticket prices are $23, so they are paying $32 to take a bus on a hour trip.

DS just got back from a 4 day trip to WDW. They took a bus and only 2 meals were paid for and the cost was over $800 per child. The same child was suppose to fly down 4 years ago for a school sponsored chess met. They were flying down and the cost was only $450 per child.

That's because in our district, using the school buses costs AS MUCH as charter buses and they are more of a pain with all their union rules. Plus, charter buses have bathrooms on them, the school buses would have to stop for that and you actually have to pay more for that (something with the drivers union)! Last year a district bus driver union person came to our PTA meeting and complained about us paying charter buses and not them and we just looked at her like she had 6 heads!

The PTA always pays for one field trip in our middle school. However, they do go on others and the kids pay for those. I think I just paid $20 for an extra feld trip besides the one the PTA paid for.

 

[NMW]

But even assuming gas prices doubles in the two intervening years, why wouldn't the cost be more along the lines of $25 - 35, given that the previous trip was $13.50?

It may cost more to hire the buses now, not just the price of gas.