Middle & High School overnight trip rules

[niq]

What are your school's rules about overnight trips? In particular are kids allowed to sleep in the same double bed? Does an adult have to sleep in the same hotel room (or that's not allowed at all)?

[charlatti]

The only trip we’ve experienced was the class trip to DC in 8th grade. Students choose roommates, 4 or 5 to a room with 2 shared double beds and a pullout sofa for the 5th person. Adults had their own rooms. There were night security guards and kids had to stay in their rooms once they got back to the hotel.

[sugarbear1]

Middle school -- every kid must have their own bed. Kids are in rooms, always 3 or 4. No adult in the room. If we are in a hotel, we hire a security guard and all rooms are on the same floor (hallway, if possible).

[waverly]

Our experience is the DC trip also. 2 queen beds, 2 kids to a bed- 4 kids per room. No adults in the room. Security guards on the floor.

[mrsGreeko]

My DD’s went on school trips to DC in MS. 4 kids in a room, 2 in each bed. Students room with kids that were born the same sex, not whatever they express as. Adults in separate rooms, 1 adult to a bed, but chaperoning parents can pay extra and request their child room with them. They painters tape the doors at lights out and have a guard patrolling the halls. Definitely plenty of kids slept on the floor or made pillow walls.

My DS just went on a MS ski trip. There were 6 kids in a room, but it was twin sized bunks so one kid per bed. Adults were in separate rooms. They were supposed to stay in their rooms, but I don’t think that were taped to make sure, although they might have been.

So far we haven’t done any HS trips and I don’t foresee that happening probably.

[countthestars]

I believe at ours, no adults are in the room with the kids. They put masking tape outside the doors to see if kids have left their rooms. ETA: and security guards, I think. Kids sleep four to a hotel room and share beds.

[erbear]

I teach eighth grade. I take the kids on a trip to Washington DC every year where we put the kids for tour our room with no adult and a hotel. Some kids choose to share the bed, some kids, choose to alternate and bring sleeping bags and put them on the floor.

We allow kids to choose roommates, but they are not always single sex. We have a lot of trans and non-binary kids at my school so we make sure that kids are in a room where everyone feels comfortable.

[maudefindlay]

Mar 7, 2024 15:27:02 GMT -5 charlatti said:

The only trip we’ve experienced was the class trip to DC in 8th grade. Students choose roommates, 4 or 5 to a room with 2 shared double beds and a pullout sofa for the 5th person. Adults had their own rooms. There were night security guards and kids had to stay in their rooms once they got back to the hotel.

This has been our experience to, also for the DC trip. The adults who go are also all school staff, parents not allowed to chaperone as it always seemed the chaperones focused on their own kids too much. They also hire security for the floors they book.

[abs]

Mar 7, 2024 15:27:02 GMT -5 charlatti said:

The only trip we’ve experienced was the class trip to DC in 8th grade. Students choose roommates, 4 or 5 to a room with 2 shared double beds and a pullout sofa for the 5th person. Adults had their own rooms. There were night security guards and kids had to stay in their rooms once they got back to the hotel.

Yep. DD is debating the DC/NYC trip next summer. This is how it would work as well.

[cmeon]

DC and state capital MS trips are similar to what's been described- 2 kids to a bed, hired security, tape on doors at lights out (or at least the threat of it). Academic competitions overnights tend to have an abundance of chaperones and are run a little looser.

HS may have the same rules (I'm honestly not sure), but they aren't enforced AFAIK. every overnight stay DS has been on in HS ends up with all the kids in the same room up all night sprawled wherever. There's never been any (known!) debauchery, they're just big nerdy slumber parties, lol. I have a feeling other groups of kids have a tighter level of control, though.

[majesty318]

Mar 7, 2024 17:22:23 GMT -5 countthestars said:

I believe at ours, no adults are in the room with the kids. They put masking tape outside the doors to see if kids have left their rooms. ETA: and security guards, I think. Kids sleep four to a hotel room and share beds.

I will never forget the masking tape on our doors during my 8th grade DC trip!

[minzy]

My older daughter (7th grade) is on her first such trip with Girl Scouts this weekend. Two kids to a bed, four to a room. Her roommates are all good friends. Chaperones stay up all night to monitor the hall. God bless my co-leader who did that overnight.

My daughter texted us last night: “Bruh… this is so locked down it’s not even funny.” She really wanted to go to bed but they didn’t let them in the rooms until 11pm. Already this morning she texted that she was tired because they were dancing at 1am. Good!

[SusanBAnthony]

Kids share beds, and rooms are not straight boy/girl, as there are a decent number of nonbinary and trans kids. I don't know exactly how it's decided but DS was just on a weekend trip and he had a bed alone, and the other two kids shared the other bed- a boy and a child who was assigned female at birth and now is exploring their gender. IDK maybe I'm crazy but kids are going to find a way to have sex if they want so who cares. Everyone was comfortable with the room and bed arrangements and having your own bed isn't ever a choice on the table because twice the number of hotel rooms would be too expensive.

They definitely aren't hiring security guards or taping doors shut on these trips. I'm not aware of any issues. The coaches set behavior expectations, and the kids usually have long days and care about what they are there for, and aren't staying up all night or anything. If they were running around the hotel at night they would get sent home. I'm sure they aren't all perfect angels, I'm not that naive, but its not wild.

[niq]

Mar 9, 2024 9:30:26 GMT -5 SusanBAnthony said:

Kids share beds, and rooms are not straight boy/girl, as there are a decent number of nonbinary and trans kids. I don't know exactly how it's decided but DS was just on a weekend trip and he had a bed alone, and the other two kids shared the other bed- a boy and a child who was assigned female at birth and now is exploring their gender. IDK maybe I'm crazy but kids are going to find a way to have sex if they want so who cares. Everyone was comfortable with the room and bed arrangements and having your own bed isn't ever a choice on the table because twice the number of hotel rooms would be too expensive.

They definitely aren't hiring security guards or taping doors shut on these trips. I'm not aware of any issues. The coaches set behavior expectations, and the kids usually have long days and care about what they are there for, and aren't staying up all night or anything. If they were running around the hotel at night they would get sent home. I'm sure they aren't all perfect angels, I'm not that naive, but its not wild.

I'm guessing there's a difference between a sports team where you might hurt your team's chances of winning or get benched/kicked off the team, vs taking everybody at a comprehensive middle/high school. But yes, I've been surprised by the security guards & tape. Well, tape is at least clever.

My college alma mater just moved to one person-one bed for sports (and probably other stuff like the marching band). I get what they're trying to do, but it doesn't seem like a great choice.

[sent]

Our 5th graders are going to take a 2 night camping trip. They travel to one of the Girl Scout camping locations in the more remote part of the state.

I have no idea how the school runs it or where anyone sleeps. There is an upcoming meeting to discuss but I really don't care. My parents would have never let me attend an overnight trip like that in 5th grade because of an inherent distrust in all things American ("Team building? How about MOAR MATH PROBLEMS. Weak, stupid Americans.") So I'm making sure that DD attends and comes home with whatever experience, good, or bad.

[magpie]

Annual overnight school camp starts in Australia in 4th grade. The kids are assigned cabins to bunk in (maybe 4-6 kids in a room, each with their own twin bed) and the teachers sleep in separate rooms, usually at least one teacher is assigned to each block/building of rooms. For Scout camp, it was 2-3 kids to a tent with adults in their own tents.


I've been the chaperone on a high school trip and we had a lights out/final room check at 10pm and kids were expected to stay in the room overnight. Unfortunately, a small group of the kids (who were 15) decided to sneak out and walk the road down to Denny's in the middle of the night just because they could. They posted about it on social media so were caught. It was frustrating for everyone. The next night, we did the tape on the doors thing with instructions that, short of a fire alarm, the tape should not be disturbed in the morning. Of course, the fire alarm got pulled that night! It was really frustrating because it was a small number of kids out of the whole group, but our school's reputation was damaged and that hotel would certainly not be letting us back.

[katb]

My kid did overnight trip in high school - but it was overseas. It was 2-3 to a room but every one had their own bed. Kid could sleep in a queen bed with parent if requested. Roommates were assigned by the teacher with input from the students (smaller group of only 30ish kids). If kid was comfortable with non-binary/transgender they told the teacher. Everyone was comfortable from what I could tell. I have no idea about security, etc. I know they were very busy and very active and most nights, my daughter was dead ass tired.

[flygirl]

My DS is in middle school and the only trips he has been on, he’s either had a bunk bed or his own bed in a double room at a hotel. I was a chaperone on one of the trips and I went around with at least one other person (teacher or chaperone) to make sure there were 2 people checking on the kids- we also kept the door open. All chaperones had to pass a background check.

There weren’t any issues on any of the trips my DS was on but the year before apparently a group of 6-7 kids decided to sneak out but I stayed up until 2am with another parent and then 2 others got up at 4am so it was a short window to cause trouble (we had enough people to do this for the 2 nights)

[hermione]

2 kids to a room. No shared beds. No adults in the room.

[chedifuen]

My kid is going to NY and DC as part of a class trip this year. It's 4 kids to a room, so two to a bed or taking turns on the floor. No adults in the rooms.