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I had no idea this was a thing. They don't use buses for field trips? We live in a city, so the kids walk to many of the field trips, but if they can't walk, they go on a bus.

Yeah I wouldn't do it at this age. And I don't know of any similar situations. Even the 4 private schools in my area owned a bus.

I’m surprised too! Elementary uses buses (that parents aren’t even allowed to go on - if you chaperone you drive yourself and meet the bus there). Preschool lets parents carpool to the few field trips but it’s up to the parents to make that choice and I’ve never done it. I occasionally drive kids of a friend but only one at a time due to space and only if they sit in a seat I already own - my extra booster in my one extra seat or a harness if one of my kids is not present and theirs can be used.

My oldest was driven on a sort of informal field trip once by another mom - she took 4 girls - we dropped off our boosters for her to use (kids were in first grade). Her other kids are older though so she likely didn’t have to remove any seats to do it. And she knew us all so she knew they were easy kids to manage.

The carseat thing would terrify me. I know I've spent a ridiculous amount of time reviewing manuals and manufacturer's install videos...only to get to my CPST check appointment and find problems with my install. Plus some carseats are simply incompatible with some vehicle seats. And what if the kiddo's parent has them in an inappropriate seat (outgrown by weight/height) or in a booster when they're not developmentally ready for it??

@SproutBee: that's nuts, what part of CA? I live in AZ as a teacher and we are consistently ranked 46th-50th for school funding and yet we even have busses. (only 1-2 per school and a horrible shortage of bus drivers, meaning our bus kids have to wait 30-40 minutes after school to get on the bus!!)

That’s crazy to me too. Once kids are in boosters I get it, but in a regular harnessed car seat I would be super uncomfortable.

@SproutBee: good point! I read car seats and was picturing younger kids in harnessed seats.

I also left my seats in and asked a friend if their child could ride in one of my seats and then checked with the teacher so I didn't have to remove mine. Just added some boosters

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@KT326: must be district dependent then? 🤷‍♀️

@SproutBee: @Corduroy: I am in San Francisco and just drove for my daughter's field trip last week. The teacher was in my car and said that a bus for a field trip costs hundreds of dollars so they don't do them. Driving was fine, the kids were very well behaved and everyone was in boosters so no real install issues.

@Corduroy: we went up to Muir Woods, so a fairly long drive

Both DH and I have driven for field trips and my LO has been driven for a field trip that neither of us could chaperone/drive for. She attends a small private K-2 school with a total of 15 kids. Bus options aren't really feasible for them.

In our case, we install whatever booster/seat the parent provides. A lot of us are friendly and have driven each other's children to/from our houses for playdates or school pickup already. Maybe that made us more comfortable with it all. But that said, we've had at most 1 more kid in the car with LO since that's what our cars can handle. We always set the rules before we go, we don't listen to music to reduce noise distractions, and we kind of caravan along the road with other parents as we all leave from school.

I feel like it's totally doable but I also get why it would be super foreign to a lot of people too.