School's Out, Risk is In: Part 1

School's Out, Risk Is In: Part 1

Before anyone packs a bag

Most school trips start the same way: someone has a great idea. A language immersion program in Costa Rica. A service project in rural Appalachia. A music festival two states over that just requires a bus ride and some soul. The pitch goes well, forms are signed, the kids are excited, and somewhere an itinerary takes shape.
 

For years after COVID, many of those itineraries sat in a drawer. Now they're back, and so is school travel, in a big way. Independent schools have returned to trips with genuine enthusiasm, and that's a good thing. But at The Jane Group, we've also seen something else return alongside it: a sharp rise in the kinds of situations that demand more than a well-planned itinerary. Incidents that require immediate, coordinated responses from teams that haven't practiced one.
 

And here's the thing about Murphy's Law: it doesn't care how good the trip is. A delayed flight becomes a missed connection. An expired passport. A lost phone. A medical emergency in a city where no one speaks the language. A group of students who make a series of decisions that end in something no one anticipated. These situations tend to go wrong faster than they would on campus, in front of more people, and, depending on how a school responds, with real consequences for its reputation.
 

Over the next three pieces, we'll walk through the situations school leaders, chaperones, and families most commonly face, and the ones they least expect. Our goal is simple: when you send students out into the world, your team has already thought through what might happen next.
 

Because the best school trips aren't just well-planned. They're well-prepared.
 

Which brings us to the first question worth asking before anyone packs a bag: who's actually in charge?

Supervision on school trips is genuinely harder than supervision on campus. The environment is unfamiliar and informal, and chaperones are often not administrators. They may be coaches, parents, or faculty who volunteered without extensive leadership experience. Add the relaxed atmosphere of travel and things that would never blur on campus can blur quickly in a foreign country.
 

When supervision expectations are unclear, students push limits they wouldn't otherwise test. When everyone is nominally in charge, effectively no one is. Even the appearance of blurred boundaries, like a chaperone who seems too close to students or who isn't reinforcing expected behavior, can create reputational risk before anything has technically gone wrong.
 

The fix isn't complicated, but it requires intention before the bags are packed:

• Designate one chaperone as the on-site lead. This is the person who makes situational calls, communicates with school leadership, and serves as the decision-maker when something comes up. 

• Brief all chaperones on expectations before departure. What platforms are appropriate for communicating with students? What behavior crosses a line? What do they do if a student comes to them with a problem at midnight?

• Make sure chaperones know their students. Before departure, the on-site lead should have access to relevant medical information, behavioral plans, and any student needs that could become relevant in an unfamiliar environment. Surprises are harder to manage far from home.

• Address social media and technology norms explicitly. Chaperones sharing location, personal accounts, or group moments online, even with good intentions, can create unexpected exposure for students and the school. Set the policy clearly and in advance.

Chaperones should enjoy the trip. That's part of the value. But the line between warm and professional doesn't disappear because you're in another city. Make sure everyone knows where it is.

Read School's Out, Risk is In: Part 2!

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