Parents driving students for field trips-UPDATE pg 6

[martikus]

You really have two options. Keep her home that day or let her go.

Regardless I would send a nice email to her teacher and principal asking them reconsider their transpiration option for this and future field trips to rely on buses only.

 

[aprilgail]

I noticed you mentioned in your first post that you don’t know any of the other parents in the school but your daughter has been there since kindergarten. Haven’t there been any birthday parties for kids in the class? PTA meetings? Back to school night? Open houses? You never talked to anyone at drop off or pick up? My off topic advice is it’s very helpful to know other parents at the school/in your kids class.
For this transportation issue it does sound odd to me. Never encountered parents driving on a field trip-buses only. However I was a scout leader for years and we usually had parents drive groups of 3 or 4 kids. Smaller group so maybe there was more a level of trust there. We did not check driving records.

That is how I knew most of the parents- starting in kindergarten bday parties, PTA, school events etc- I knew most of the parents but some not well enough to have drive my daughter, especially when she still needed a car seat. In 5th grade she was being driven home from an after school thing by a parent I was friends with and they were broadsided by someone who ran a red light- totally NOT the moms fault, so it can really happen even with parents you knew but I would feel better if she was with someone I knew.

 

[maddiel]

I'd like to get some feedback from other parents of kids in public schools.
1) Does your kid(s)' school ever utilize parent drivers for field trip transportation of students?
2) If so, what screening or requirements does the school have for parent drivers?
3) How do you feel about parents driving other students for field trips and have/would you be comfortable with your kid being driven by another parent (who you don't know) to a field trip?

1) Yes. I have driven for many field trips at a variety of grade levels. I can't remember right off what the youngest grade I drove for was (my youngest is graduating this year so it's been a while...) but it was probably grade 3 or 4. In elementary it was most common for trips where the cost of busing was prohibitive - a single class going a short distance for example where public transit wasn't an option. In junior high and high school it was more for extracurricular trips, although I did drive some of my daughter's classmates in her small Spanish class to a movie theatre and I think I drove my older daughter and her class mates to an essay writing workshop at a local university. The longest I drove students was to a conference 2 hours away.

2) Any person who is going to volunteer in a position where they are directly supervising students has to present a vulnerable sector police check to the school and be cleared by the child abuse registry at least every 3 years. To drive on a field trip you have to file a signed form with details about your vehicle and insurance - here it is:https://hfc.hrsb.ca/sites/default/files/websites/hfc.hrsb.ca/our-school-file/2017/08/jform.pdf

3) I was a very active volunteer and often the class parent, so I usually went on the field trips and drove. If I couldn't, I knew most of the other parents. The way it generally worked, you didn't know who would be driving whom until the last minute so I probably sent my kids in a car with someone I didn't know at some time or another. Frankly, as a parent of older children, it was way less nerve-wracking then having them drive with their friends in high school.

M.

 

[mamamary]

When my kids were younger and in public school there were no parents driving kids to field trips - ever. When my kids were in private pre-school parents had to take the kids - there were never any buses to take them as far as I can remember. I do remember - just barely - taking another boy in my car to a field trip that was pretty close to school. I cannot remember any of the details but I think it was kinda like if you can take another child with you that would be great. I feel like I actually got to know a lot of the parents (classes were only about 10 kids) but I know how I am and I was always lucky enough to be able to go on all the field trips when they needed parent drivers. Not sure about the whole car seat thing. Maybe the kid I took just needed a booster seat put in the car?????

 

[gotomu212]

We’ve done it at my son’s school. It came more into play as they started to play sports and do extracurricular activities and needed rides to events, but I remember driving several kindergarten kids on two separate trips and wrestling with everyone’s booster seats.

At our school there aren’t any seperate driving checks or forms.

We can’t tell you whether or not you should be comfortable with it. That’s a really personal decision. When he was younger I tried to volunteer whenever I could because I felt better driving, but there were times I couldn’t and it was fine. As he’s gotten older I’ve become very comfortable with the system.

That said I’m not the most outgoing but did make it a point to get to know other parents in the class and activities. It is always nice having a little extra support circle to help when you can’t go to events or need help with a pickup. Even suggesting a little coffee with a few other moms where you can bring your toddler might help. There are probably a lot of other moms that would like the chance to have a quick 45 minute coffee and meet other parents. You’re probably right at the age where doing “stuff” outside of school becomes more important and I always felt better knowing the other parents (and the one set of parents who we aren’t okay with sleepovers or driving). Just a thought.

 

[Southernmiss]

No, parents don't drive for field trips. Yes, this would make me uncomfortable and I would need more info from the school, or let my child stay at school the day of the field trip.

I am struggling with this part. This is the child's third year in a school and you don't know anyone? That is really odd to me. I am an introvert, but for the sake of knowing who my children interact with, I can make myself personally uncomfortable to know about the kids and families in my child's schools. Meeting families in the neighborhood, volunteering at school, ptA, invited party days, running into Suzie and her parent at the store, etc... it would seem somewhere along the way seeing other parents would have happened.

 

[sjrec]

Our public schools always provided bus transport, but when budgets were tight, field trips were one of the first things to get cut.
Since you don’t know any of the parents, I can understand your concerns. It’s possible they might let you be one of the drivers-even with your toddler coming along.
With a new school year coming up, please consider joining your PTA (they do so many good things!), volunteering for room mother, helping out in the classroom or school library-I made some nice friends over the years and got to know the administration and my daughter’s teachers as well.

 

[dotfurio]

FWIW I want to chime in here on the meeting and knowing other parents issue. DH and I work full time as teachers. There is no volunteering in DDs room, no chaperoning on field trips, no dropping off or picking her up at school start and end times (she has to attend before and after school care), and no PTA opportunities (they meet during the day). So outside of the kids who live in our neighborhood and aren't even in her class, or in most cases even in her grade, we don't know any parents either. She plays with the kids in our neighborhood. We've been invited to birthday parties for kids in her class, and while we chatted with parents a bit I don't really "know" them nor did we exchange contact info as our kids aren't close enough to ask for play dates.

 

[sjrec]

FWIW I want to chime in here on the meeting and knowing other parents issue. DH and I work full time as teachers. There is no volunteering in DDs room, no chaperoning on field trips, no dropping off or picking her up at school start and end times (she has to attend before and after school care), and no PTA opportunities (they meet during the day). So outside of the kids who live in our neighborhood and aren't even in her class, or in most cases even in her grade, we don't know any parents either. She plays with the kids in our neighborhood. We've been invited to birthday parties for kids in her class, and while we chatted with parents a bit I don't really "know" them nor did we exchange contact info as our kids aren't close enough to ask for play dates.

Would your administration allow you to take a personal day for field trips? I was able to when I was still working, and my daughter and son in law have used personal days for field trips for my grandson.
And if our school had PTA meetings during the day there wouldn’t be anyone there! And there always had to be a teacher representative at the meeting.

 

[dotfurio]

Would your administration allow you to take a personal day for field trips? I was able to when I was still working, and my daughter and son in law have used personal days for field trips for my grandson.
And if our school had PTA meetings during the day there wouldn’t be anyone there! And there always had to be a teacher representative at the meeting.

Both where I live and where I teach, PTAs meet during the day. Technically they are called parent clubs, but they function as you would think of a PTA. No teachers necessary, but admin usually sits in on the meetings.

DH has taken off work to attend one field trip. It didn't result in any exchange of phone numbers, plans to get together and get to know each other better, or lifelong bonds of friendship between parents.

With ODD where we really got to know school parents was with Girl Scouts, but YDD has no interest in scouts (and frankly after having been ODDs troop leader for several years neither do I).

With YDD, we're all fine just knowing the neighborhood families.

 

[lifesavacation]

Our public schools always provided bus transport, but when budgets were tight, field trips were one of the first things to get cut.
Since you don’t know any of the parents, I can understand your concerns. It’s possible they might let you be one of the drivers-even with your toddler coming along.
With a new school year coming up, please consider joining your PTA (they do so many good things!), volunteering for room mother, helping out in the classroom or school library-I made some nice friends over the years and got to know the administration and my daughter’s teachers as well.

I never felt comfortable with others driving so either my husband or I would volunteer on the field trips. This is how we met one of our good friends. My husband and the other dad were both volunteers on a kindergarten field trip. We now live next door to each other 17 years later.

 

[katie01]

My kids go to Catholic school, which I would say tends to lean towards being able to get away with more in regards to legality, and yet even they required a driver's license on file for chaperones. We also had to complete an online volunteer training thing, and submit info for a background check. I'm pretty sure they do the background checks too, you can't be cleared to volunteer until all of your stuff has gone through.

Even with all those safety measures at our school, I still think they almost always use buses for field trips. I can only think of one in which I drove, and it wasn't too far of a drive, just about 7 miles. Funny side note, maybe they should have used more parent drivers for a couple of the trips. Both of my girls went on field trips (separate trips) to places an hour away or more, and both times the professional, charter bus drivers got lost!

Definitely go with your gut and do what makes you feel comfortable in terms of letting your child go on the field trip

 

[Wishing on a star]

This is how I handled it when there were long possibly overwhelming field trips when my son was still enrolled in elementary school.
Didn't matter if there were busses or not.
If I wanted him to go, he didn't go to school that morning.
I would happen to meet up with them at the destination...
We came, and went, on our own.

PS: IMHO this whole everybody who can show up is a 'driver' and the school bears no responsibility thing does NOT hold water.

 

[sk!mom]

I'm a public elementary teacher and I've never heard of this. I would have only allowed this for my children if I knew the parent driver. Otherwise, I would drive my own child. If that was impossible, they would skip the trip. I also would not be volunteering to drive other children. I wouldn't be willing to accept the liability for children that I wasn't friends with their parents.


I would be scheduling a meeting with the principal to discuss my questions and concerns.
Will those driving all have proper safety seats for children that age?

 

[maddiel]

This is how I handled it when there were long possibly overwhelming field trips when my son was still enrolled in elementary school.
Didn't matter if there were busses or not.
If I wanted him to go, he didn't go to school that morning.
I would happen to meet up with them at the destination...
We came, and went, on our own.

Having a parent and child join the group at the site without any prior notice has the potential to be problematic. Oftentimes our school would pay any entrance or workshop fees by cheque based on how many student they knew they had attending the field trip. It would also make it easier to make a mistake keeping track of the number of students in the group.

M.

 

[mummabear]

My kids school regularly uses private card to transport students.
No background check is done.
We do sign something saying that we are a liscenced driver and that our car has a warrant, and that no one but our own kid will sit in the front seat.

 

[tvguy]

This is really bizarre for a public school. I would probably be contacting the principal because many 2nd graders still need booster seats. .

School buses don't have seat belts so you can't use booster seats in them.
Here this wouldn't be bizarre at all for parents to drive kids on a field trip. It has been the norm for probably 20 years (lord, that's a generation). But we have open enrollment here. Few students go to either their assigned or neighborhood school. Because of that, the district stopped providing bus service for the regular school day, no way to put together a route when nobody is going to the same school. They sold the buses, and laid off the bus drivers....except those they were required to have for special needs students. For longer out of town trips, they would charter buses, and parents had to pay for that.
I worked overnight shift, so I was "available" and had a 9 passenger Suburban, so I drove a whole lot of those field trips for my kids.
And a side note, I am amazed at the line of parents dropping off and picking up kids at school these days.

 

[mjkacmom]

School buses don't have seat belts so you can't use booster seats in them.
Here this wouldn't be bizarre at all for parents to drive kids on a field trip. It has been the norm for probably 20 years (lord, that's a generation). But we have open enrollment here. Few students go to either their assigned or neighborhood school. Because of that, the district stopped providing bus service for the regular school day, no way to put together a route when nobody is going to the same school. They sold the buses, and laid off the bus drivers....except those they were required to have for special needs students. For longer out of town trips, they would charter buses, and parents had to pay for that.
I worked overnight shift, so I was "available" and had a 9 passenger Suburban, so I drove a whole lot of those field trips for my kids.
And a side note, I am amazed at the line of parents dropping off and picking up kids at school these days.

Our town is small, no bussing, but we do have a bunch of school buses for sports, field trips, etc.

 

[Skywalker]

This is how I handled it when there were long possibly overwhelming field trips when my son was still enrolled in elementary school.
Didn't matter if there were busses or not.
If I wanted him to go, he didn't go to school that morning.
I would happen to meet up with them at the destination...
We came, and went, on our own.

PS: IMHO this whole everybody who can show up is a 'driver' and the school bears no responsibility thing does NOT hold water.

I'm sorry, this sounds so bizarrely overprotective and smothering. Thank Goodness not all parents insist on special rules for their kids, it'd get ridiculous.

 

[shoney]

Out school buses have had seatbelts since the late 80s when I was in high school. No one uses them.
When my kids were little, parents would
Make sure little ones were buckled for school trips.

Our schools always provided buses for trips. School buses for short trips and coach buses for longer rides.

Only students attending school were permitted on trip. If a parent showed up they would be asked to leave.