Question about field trips

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know if opting out of a field trip would be considered an unexcused absence?

I normally am able to drive my daughter and help chaperone during field trips but her next field trip is in a couple of weeks and I will have too much work to do and won't be able to take the day off.

I'm uncomfortable with having her ride in someone else's car and to be quite honest, the other parents just mainly watch on their own kids and I'm not willing to take any chances.

[Anonymous]

How old are your kids? Do you have any evidence that the parent driver is irresponsible?

I was a parent driver for a field trip for my DC's 1st grade class. I promise you, all the kids got home safe. And I did look after other kids, not just my own. Yea, I know, there may be parents out there that don't. But you know what, there may be a bomb on a plane, but we still fly. There may be a crazy person near my DC's school, but we still send DC to school. C'mon.

[Anonymous]

You can opt her out of the field trip and they will make arrangements for her to have a place in the school to do some alternative work assignments provided by the teacher. If you keep her out of school altogether that day, it would most likely be unexcused.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can opt her out of the field trip and they will make arrangements for her to have a place in the school to do some alternative work assignments provided by the teacher. If you keep her out of school altogether that day, it would most likely be unexcused.

+1

[Anonymous]

Helicopter much? Give your child some freedom. You are hurting her more by being over protective.

[Anonymous]

I don't know how old she is, and it's up to you what you want to do with your kid, but I can see that there's going to be a lot of anxiety and frustration for both you and her as she grows older if you don't want to let go of these kind of things. Have you thought whether you may be categorized a helicopter parent?

[Anonymous]

Yikes. Unless there is something seriously wrong at your school, your snowflakes will return from a field trip alive and in one piece-- even if you are not there to micromanage.

[Anonymous]

How old is this child?

[Anonymous]

A parent chaperone lost my child on a field trip in Kindergarten. He didn't run away, she just walked away with her group and left him at the exhibit. I don't think you are crazy, despite the previous posts.

[Anonymous]

The question about whether this would be an excused or unexcused absence is a question for your school. They can answer you in an instant; we here don't know what school or school system you're in or what their policies might be. Is there some reason you're reluctant just to ask the school directly for its policy? That's really the only place to get the right answer. Our experiences won't mean much if your school does something different.

My kid has never been on any school field trip that involved parents driving anyone. The schools always used buses--either yellow school buses for the early elementary trips, or charter buses if it was a long trip (in later elementary and middle school). Why isn't your school, if it's a public school, using a school bus? Or is this a small preschool class --?

[Anonymous]

She's in kindergarten and we don't have school buses.

I don't care if someone thinks that I'm a helicopter parent but I noticed last year during field trips that people mainly watched on their own children and sometimes would lose track of the other children. People take pictures with their cell phones and just focus on their own kids.

I will ask the school about the absences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A parent chaperone lost my child on a field trip in Kindergarten. He didn't run away, she just walked away with her group and left him at the exhibit. I don't think you are crazy, despite the previous posts.

Did he ever turn up again, or is he still missing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:She's in kindergarten and we don't have school buses.

I don't care if someone thinks that I'm a helicopter parent but I noticed last year during field trips that people mainly watched on their own children and sometimes would lose track of the other children. People take pictures with their cell phones and just focus on their own kids.

I will ask the school about the absences.

OP, I do not let my child go without me or a family member. I tell them one of us goes or he stays home. So far, they've allowed me to go but otherwise he'll stay home. No big deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A parent chaperone lost my child on a field trip in Kindergarten. He didn't run away, she just walked away with her group and left him at the exhibit. I don't think you are crazy, despite the previous posts.

Did he ever turn up again, or is he still missing?

Ha. They found him. But it wasn't one of those times when you momentarily lose track. They had to get security and my child was still sitting at the exhibit 15 minutes later, lost and crying. The mother chaperoning his group was an idiot.

[Anonymous]

God I pity teachers today.