PP again, clarifying what I just wrote:

Field trips are usually chosen and organized by the teachers. Often they are self-funding, without any help from the PTA - parents pay the cost up front. The difference you are missing is for the buses, which are very expensive (and the school may actually use funds for transportation, so as not to pass on the whole costs).

The PTA organizes cultural arts and scientific events in every school, and possibly field trips too, and these are paid for with parent's donations during PTA fundraising events. Usually these events are planned many months in advance by parent volunteers (with school approval). This year's PTA events are funded with money raised last year.

I'm much closer to the Science Center and my kids have been there many times. It's a pretty neat place. With that being said, I don't know if it's worth a $45 trip from Virginia. After all that money and time getting there, I think the kids are going to ask, "Is this all?"

I'm on the board of our elementary school PTA in Bethesda. Here are the usual parameters:

1. This should basically be the only paying field trip of the year. We try to keep the annual cost of field trips to a maximum of about $50 dollars per child, and most grades' field trips don't even come close to that maximum! For us, it's the fourth grade field trip to St Mary's City which costs that much.

2. It should be clearly stated in the parent notification that financial assistance is available to families in need. Our school keeps a scholarship fund for such occasions, paid for by the PTA, and a confidential list of students who might need assistance (probably based on FARMS data, but other considerations as well - we have a very international and diverse student body).

So go ahead and make your voice heard, OP.

Hi this is OP here. No meals are provided (we had to pack lunch). In terms of PTA donations, I don't think it is down at all this year, but the PTA hasn't funded this field trip, as far as I know. We haven't heard of any type of financial assistance being offered either Our child was happy to go, even though we've gone many times before, so I'm glad, but I was just curious as to whether this type of cost is a norm in this area. And from what I'm gathering, it is not!

$45? Admission to the MD Science Center is about $16-20 for children, school group rates are normally less. Where did $45 per child come from?

Busses are expensive and my guess is for a long trip like that they need charter busses so they don't have to be back in time for the HS kids to use the busses (1:30 in MCPS). I think our 5th grade Philly trip is like $75. What got me was that parent volunteers had to pay too? I did not volunteer..

Anonymous wrote:Just wrote a check for $11 for a field trip but it's to a local nature center... $45 seems steep, even for a larger science center. Admission couldn't cost more than half of that.

Transpo fee? Meals?

Are PTA donations significantly down this year? Does your school have fundraisers?

That does seem like a lot of money but the MD science center would be fun and not something that the kids have already done a million and one times already. There is that.

Do they already factor in money to support families who cannot afford it, or must they ask explicitly for people to supplement? $45 is steep -- but is this the only field trip this year? Last two years my kids had 3 file trips at about $8-15 a pop.

Wow. I'm shocked that part of the cost isn't being footed by the PTA or school itself. I'd probably pay that, but our school (MCPS Focus School) would NEVER plan a field trip that costs that much per family. Of course, that means that if the school wanted to do the MSC, we'd have to fundraise or use PTA money.

10:19 again. Forgot to mention - I would pay it but I wouldn't be happy about it. I certainly hope every child is able to go on that trip regardless of their ability to pay....

Just wrote a check for $11 for a field trip but it's to a local nature center... $45 seems steep, even for a larger science center. Admission couldn't cost more than half of that.

Anonymous wrote:My child's school has a field trip today that cost $45 per child. Granted, it is to the MD Science Center (and we live in FCPS), but I was a little shocked at how much the trip was going to cost! We've never had to pay more than $15-20 max in the past, but we recently moved to FCPS which may be why I was surprised at the cost. Just wanted to get a sense of how much would you be willing to spend for a field trip? And if it cost too much, whether you would not have your child participate, even if everyone else in their class was going to?

The most I've paid is $30. I would pay $45 if I could afford it. However, I wouldn't like it. Not letting child participate would be a last, last choice and only for dire straits.

While we could pay that much for a field trip, I'd be really upset with the school for doing that. It's a lot of money, and would be a big squeeze on a lot of people's budget, if not cost-prohibitive. I certainly hope FCPS at least has some kind of field trip scholarship program for families that truly can't afford it. Even if they do, though, I think for a field trip like that there either should be fundraising at the PTA level to help defray the costs of these kinds of field trips, or they shouldn't be done.

My child's school has a field trip today that cost $45 per child. Granted, it is to the MD Science Center (and we live in FCPS), but I was a little shocked at how much the trip was going to cost! We've never had to pay more than $15-20 max in the past, but we recently moved to FCPS which may be why I was surprised at the cost. Just wanted to get a sense of how much would you be willing to spend for a field trip? And if it cost too much, whether you would not have your child participate, even if everyone else in their class was going to?