08/05/2025
This came straight from 23rd district about field trips.
When it comes to field trips and PTA providing funding, it's all about making sure it's done properly so that the right parties are responsible for keeping the children safe. If it's during school hours/instructional time, the school district and site staff should be responsible for keeping the students safe - especially for things the PTA cannot (and should not be) controlling (like field trips.).
In these instances, the PTA should collaborate with administration to donate funds for field trips to the school, and should not be signing contracts for field trips or transportation services for field trips, nor should PTA be paying these invoices directly. This can transfer liability to the PTA, which we do not want (and quite honestly, the school district doesn't want either.).
The funds should be donated to the school via fiduciary agreement form, and in the appropriate space, should detail the amount of funds provided, and it's purpose. For example: "$25/student ($2500 total) for third grade field trip to Fantasyland, and associated expenses." By articulating the purpose of the funds donation, this ensure that funds will be used appropriately, it also essentially says, "The PTA is giving you this money to make this thing happen (in this case the field trip) and this amount is intended to encompass any associated expenses, such as transportation, admission, etc.)."
Remember that the purpose of the PTA is to ensure that all children benefit, so this can be done in a number of ways:
Dedicated "Field Trip" line items in the budget
If the PTA is ensuring that funds are set aside to allow each grade level to participate in a field trip, and intends the funds to be used solely for field trips, this would be the way to articulate the intended use in the budget. This would establish grade level lines to dedicate a specific amount of funds (either per student, or a flat amount) to each grade level to ensure that each grade level was able to undertake up to one field trip.
Dedicated "Grade Level Funds" line items in the budget
If the intention is not to limit funds strictly for field trip use, but to set aside funds in the PTA budget to allow for the PTA to collaborate with the teachers to directly benefit the students via possibilities (field trips, assemblies (site-based), supplies, etc.), then categorizing the funds by grade level and articulating those line items as "grade level funds" may be more appropriate. This allows the funds set aside (either articulated per student or a flat amount per grade level) to potential be used for a broader scope of potential use.
Either way, the funds still have to follow the appropriate approval processes, but in the last would be able to be articulated as "up to one field trip, up to one assembly, or up to one activity", to ensure that funds are distributed in such a way that all students benefit. Each grade level may not use the entire amount (for example, a first grade walking field trip to the library may not use the same amount of funds as a second grade field trip to Legoland), but once those offerings have been met, any funds remaining in the line item can then be shifted/reallocated by the PTA to fund remaining programs or to potentially fund new programs within the year.
