Budget Question and Answer Detail - Montgomery County Public Schools, Rockville, MD

Fiscal Year 2020 → Question 1

Please provide a report on all field trips taken last year by school.

Question#: 11

ANSWER:

According to MCPS Form 210-4 (September 2016), Approval for Extended Day, Out-of-Area, and Overnight Field Trips, and MCPS Form 210-6 (September 2016), Approval for Local June Field Trips:

Students cannot be denied the opportunity to attend a trip due to financial hardship. A student financial hardship statement must be on the orientation letter. Example: “If you need to make special arrangements to cover the cost of the trip, please contact your child’s teacher in writing prior to the deadline indicated. Any correspondence will be kept confidential.”

Funding for students who cannot attend a trip due to financial hardship, is paid through a school’s Individual Activity Fund account.

Additionally, noted under Payment on MCPS Forms 555-6 (September 2016), Parent/Guardian Approval for Trips MCPS Transportation Is Provided, and 560-31 (September 2016), Parent/Guardian Approval for Trips MCPS Transportation is Not Provided:

Scholarships, reduced fee, or modified payment schedules are available if the cost of the field trip would create a hardship for your family.

The following data is based on a review of field trip submissions for 2017-2018. There were approximately 2,100 field trips taken across all schools. Schools that are not on the list did not report any field trips during the 2017-2018 school year. The list can be found at the following link: https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/departments/budget/fy2020/MCPS-2017-2018-Field-Trips-by-School-2020-03-29.pdf

Across all elementary schools, there is a pattern that indicates the number of field trips taken is grade-dependent with grades 2, 4, and 5 taking two times more field trips than other grades.
Additionally, elementary schools generally have more field trips than secondary and special schools.

Most of the field trips have zero cost and many schools, regardless of school population, utilize MCPS transportation and/or conduct in-school field trips, keeping costs to a minimum.

A school may have to schedule a single field trip over several days to accommodate the size of the grade level, scheduling of substitutes, or capacity of the site. Therefore, there may be multiple field trips on the same day to the same location, resulting in an inflated number of field trips.
- Example: In the following table, Northwest High School reported 44 field trips during 2017-2018. The highlighted lines indicate field trips that are entered multiple times. If we account for the duplication of trips, the total number of actual field trips is reduced by 11, and results in 33 total field trips.

Northwest High School 2017-2018 Field Trips

	School	Start Date	End Date	Location
1	Northwest HS	9/16/2017	9/16/2017	Urbana High School
2	Northwest HS	10/1/2017	10/1/2017	Arundel High School, Gambrills, MD
3	Northwest HS	10/12/2017	10/12/2017	Holocaust Museum Washington, D. C.
4	Northwest HS	10/12/2017	10/12/2017	Holocaust Museum Washington, D. C.
5	Northwest HS	10/18/2017	10/18/2017	Montgomery College, Rockville, MD
6	Northwest HS	10/19/2017	10/19/2017	Cunningham Falls, Thurmont, MD
7	Northwest HS	10/21/2017	10/21/2017	Towson University, Baltimore, MD
8	Northwest HS	10/28/2017	10/28/2017	Navy Stadium, Annapolis, MD
9	Northwest HS	10/30/2017	10/30/2017	Butler's Orchard, Germantown, MD
10	Northwest HS	11/1/2017	11/1/2017	NIH Campus, Bethesda, MD
11	Northwest HS	11/20/2017	11/20/2017	Strathmore Hall
12	Northwest HS	11/20/2017	11/20/2017	Strathmore Hall
13	Northwest HS	11/20/2017	11/20/2017	Strathmore Hall, North Bethesda, MD
14	Northwest HS	12/1/2017	12/1/2017	University of MD College Park
15	Northwest HS	12/1/2017	12/1/2017	University of MD College Park
16	Northwest HS	12/13/2017	12/13/2017	Shakespeare Theater Washington, D. C.
17	Northwest HS	12/13/2017	12/13/2017	Shakespeare Theater Washington, D. C.
18	Northwest HS	12/15/2017	12/15/2017	Walter Reed Medical Ctr, /Silver Spring, MD
19	Northwest HS	12/15/2017	12/15/2017	Walter Reed Medical Ctr./Silver Spring, MD
20	Northwest HS	1/13/2018	1/13/2018	Montgomery College, Rockville, MD
21	Northwest HS	1/13/2018	1/13/2018	Montgomery College, Rockville, MD
22	Northwest HS	1/19/2018	1/19/2018	Clarksburg HS, Clarksburg MD
23	Northwest HS	2/12/2018	2/12/2018	INOVA Fairfax Hospital
24	Northwest HS	2/12/2018	2/12/2018	INOVA Fairfax Hospital
25	Northwest HS	2/20/2018	2/20/2018	INOVA Fairfax Hospital
26	Northwest HS	2/20/2018	2/20/2018	INOVA, Fairfax Hospital, Falls Church, VA
27	Northwest HS	2/24/2018	2/24/2018	Liberty High School, Eldersburg, MD
28	Northwest HS	2/27/2018	2/27/2018	National Gallery Of Art
29	Northwest HS	2/27/2018	2/27/2018	National Gallery of Art
30	Northwest HS	4/5/2018	4/5/2018	Montgomery College, Germantown, MD
31	Northwest HS	4/6/2018	4/6/2018	Engineer Festival, Washington, D.C.
32	Northwest HS	4/10/2018	4/10/2018	Mont. Co. Agricultural Center, Gaithersburg, MD
33	Northwest HS	4/11/2018	4/15/2017	Disney World, Orlando, Florida
34	Northwest HS	4/11/2018	4/15/2018	Disney World, Orlando, Florida
35	Northwest HS	4/20/2018	4/20/2018	New York, NY
36	Northwest HS	4/20/2018	4/20/2018	New York, NY
37	Northwest HS	4/20/2018	4/20/2018	New York, New York
38	Northwest HS	4/24/2018	4/24/2018	Natl. Gallery of Art, Washington DC
39	Northwest HS	4/26/2018	4/26/2018	Gallaudet University, Washington, D.C.
40	Northwest HS	4/26/2018	4/30/2018	Greater Columbus Conv. Center, OH
41	Northwest HS	4/27/2018	4/27/2018	Lansburgh Theater, Washington, D.C.
42	Northwest HS	5/16/2018	5/16/2018	Towson Univ. SECU Arena, Towson, MD
43	Northwest HS	5/30/2018	5/30/2018	National Zoo, Washington, D.C.
44	Northwest HS	5/31/2018	5/31/2018	Sandy Point State Park, Annapolis, MD