Originally Posted by Irena
I guess they do not necessarily want to highlight that parents have a third option (one being attending the trip, two being staying home instead of going on the trip and three being getting to send your child to school that day but still get to opt of trip). Interesting. But I do think that if someone pushed on the issue, the school would do just that - put the child in anther class for the day or something... I think they just do not necessarily want it to be obvious that there is a choice.
It is the job of the school to keep the child in campus if the parent opts the child out of the field trip. Field trips are not mandatory. Staying home involves the parent taking time off from other things to watch the child. So, the contingency plan of the school is to put your child who is not on the field trip in another classroom of the same grade or a close enough grade for however long the trip takes. In our school, when the whole grade goes on the trip on the same day, the child not on the trip is sometimes left with the front desk and admins who provide work packets, craft packets etc and then send the child to PE with another grade and such things. Essentially, the child is fully taken care of - maybe a wasted day for the child, but they do "something" at school.