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Risk Management

Field Trip Guidelines

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General Information

Liability issues are involved when students are asked to go on field trips as part of their course requirements. Listed below are guidelines for the instructor to consider.

The academic field trip is defined as an off campus group learning activity led by faculty, staff or a university designee who travels with the group. This definition does not include off campus learning activities such as internships, service learning or any activity where a student or group of students acts independently of a group assignment. Academic field trips do not include any voluntary student “field experience” not required or requested by the faculty as part of their course requirements.

CSU Executive Order No. 1051 [PDF] charges each campus with developing specific policies for controlling risk to ensure activities are conducted in a manner that does not impose unreasonable risk for loss or injury. The Executive Order guidelines include the following:


Field Trip Checklist

Once the faculty has determined the field trip is the best alternative for students to meet the educational objective, the faculty member should complete the checklist below:

  1. Determine if a site visit is appropriate to ensure the selected site is safe. If a site visit is unnecessary, documentation should exist in the field trip file to support this decision.

  2. Prepare both a course syllabus and support plan agenda for the field trip. The course syllabus should include a brief statement of the purpose of the field trip. The support plan agenda should include the trip details and health and safety instructions for all participants. The health and safety instructions should include information regarding the accommodation of any student special needs, safety equipment requirements and steps to take to minimize any reasonably foreseeable hazards (for example crime, strenuous physical activity, dangerous animals, falling hazards, etc).

  3. Faculty should provide students with the waiver of liability and obtain their signatures (see, Executive Order No. 1051 [PDF]).

  4. Faculty should provide students with the Department of Safety’s emergency contact information.

  5. Maintain an attendee roster.

  6. Maintain all records from each field trip for three years beyond the year in which the field trip occurs.

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