How to Fill Out and Submit the OUSD Field Trip Request Form

The OUSD field trip request form is available through the Oakland Unified School District’s Oakland Goes Outdoors resource page, which hosts the current Google Doc version alongside the related templates you will need.¹ Download it there, but plan on submitting a full packet rather than the form alone. Overnight trips must reach Risk Management at least 60 days before departure, and high-risk trips at least 30 days ahead, so start early.

What Belongs in the Packet

The request form is the cover document. Your principal and the district’s Risk Management office review it together with several attachments, and a missing piece will stall the whole submission.

Day Field Trip/Excursion Request Form, covering destination, dates, educational purpose, transportation, and participant counts.
Health Services Notification Form, so your school nurse can coordinate medical needs.
Student Permission Slip, one per student, signed by a parent or guardian, with the liability waiver required under California Education Code 35330.
Declaration of Driver Form for every adult driving a private or rental vehicle, with license and insurance documentation attached.
Nutrition Services Notification Form, if students will miss a school meal or need sack lunches.
Certificate of Insurance Coverage Request Form, if the destination asks for proof of OUSD liability coverage.
Checklist Prior to Trip Departure, used on the day of the trip to confirm everything is in place.

High-risk trips, meaning activities like water sports, ropes courses, or anything with elevated physical risk, follow a separate set of forms under OUSD Administrative Regulation 6153.² Trips paid for with restricted funding sources also need sign-off from State and Federal Compliance.

Filling Out the Request Form

Most fields are straightforward logistics, but incomplete entries are the main reason packets get bounced back. Start with the educational purpose, and be specific. “Supports our unit on local ecosystems” works. “Educational enrichment” does not. Administrators need to see how the time off campus connects to instructional goals.

Enter the destination name, full street address, departure and return times, and a short itinerary of what students will do on site. For transportation, mark whether you are using district buses, walking, public transit, chartered buses, or private vehicles. That choice drives which attachments you need: private vehicles trigger the Declaration of Driver paperwork, and chartered buses may require the vendor’s Certificate of Insurance.

List the total number of students, the number of supervising adults, and the names of all chaperones. OUSD Board Policy 6153 sets a baseline adult-to-student ratio of 1:10.² Younger students and higher-risk activities often call for more adults than the minimum. Check that your participant totals match across every form in the packet before you hand it to your principal.

Permission Slips and the Required Waiver

Every student needs a signed permission slip returned before departure day. OUSD’s field trip policy requires three elements on each slip: a full description of the trip and activities, health information for the student and any adult participants, and a Notice of Waiver of All Claims.³

The waiver language comes from California Education Code Section 35330, which deems everyone on a field trip to have waived all claims against the school district, charter school, or the State of California for injury, illness, or death during the excursion.⁴ For out-of-state trips, parents must sign a written waiver statement; the implied waiver that covers in-state trips is not enough. Put the waiver language on your permission slip template rather than using a separate sheet.

One point to plan around: California law prohibits excluding any student from a field trip because they cannot afford to pay, and the district must work with community groups to cover costs for families who need help.⁴ If your trip has a per-student cost, build in a quiet way for families to request fee assistance.

Chaperone Clearance

Adults supervising students must be cleared through OUSD’s volunteer registration system before the trip date. Which clearance level they need depends on whether they will ever be alone with students.

Unsupervised clearance, required for most field trip chaperones: registration, TB clearance, Mandated Reporter Training, and Live Scan fingerprinting.
Supervised clearance: registration, TB clearance, and Mandated Reporter Training. This only works when an OUSD employee is with the volunteer at all times.

Registration runs through the Oakland Public Education Fund, which emails volunteers from osv@oaklandedfund.org with instructions for each step. Mandated Reporter Training is a one-to-two-hour online course, and volunteers logging fewer than 32 hours in a school year can request an exemption. TB clearance uses either a risk assessment form or a skin or blood test, and stays valid for four years.⁵ Live Scan fingerprint results take two to four weeks to come back, which is the usual bottleneck.

For the 2025–2026 school year, the Oakland Public Education Fund is not offering fingerprinting scholarships because of budget constraints, so volunteers who need unsupervised clearance should expect to pay for Live Scan themselves.⁵ California Education Code Section 49406 separately requires a TB risk assessment for any school volunteer with frequent or prolonged student contact, defined as cumulative face-to-face time over eight hours.⁶

Private Vehicle Drivers

Each driver completes OUSD’s Declaration of Driver Form and attaches a photocopy of their California driver’s license, current insurance card, and insurance declarations page showing policy limits.⁷ The form is renewed every school year, even when nothing has changed.

By signing, the driver certifies they are at least 21, hold a valid California license, have not been convicted of reckless driving or DUI in the past five years, and carry liability insurance meeting OUSD’s minimums: $100,000 per person and $300,000 per occurrence for bodily injury, plus $50,000 per occurrence for property damage.⁷ Drivers whose policy limits fall below $100,000/$300,000 can transport only their own child, not other students.⁸

Drivers also check their vehicle’s tires, brakes, lights, and suspension before the trip, carry only as many passengers as the vehicle was designed for, and make sure every passenger uses a seatbelt or appropriate car seat. The supervising teacher shares emergency contact numbers and relevant student medical information with each driver before departure.⁷

When the Venue Requires Insurance Proof

Some destinations, including museums, outdoor education centers, and climbing gyms, require proof that OUSD carries liability coverage before they let student groups on site. When a venue asks, fill out the Certificate of Insurance Coverage Request Form and attach the venue’s written insurance requirements. Risk Management issues the certificate, naming the venue as appropriate.

This step takes time because it moves through the district office rather than your school site. Waiting until the week before the trip to discover the venue needs a certificate puts the trip at risk of cancellation.

Submitting and Getting Approval

Your site principal reviews and signs the packet first, then routes it to Risk Management. The district has two firm advance-submission windows: overnight trips at least 60 days before departure, and high-risk trips at least 30 days before departure.¹

Standard local day trips have no published minimum lead time, but two to three weeks is a sensible floor. That gives room for the principal’s review, Risk Management processing, and any back-and-forth over missing documents. If the packet is incomplete, the district contacts your site administrator for clarification before approving. A missing driver form or an expired TB clearance for one chaperone will stall the whole packet, not just that person’s participation.

After-school program lead agencies have one extra step: they submit a Schedule of Field Trips form on the first day of each semester (and before summer programming, if applicable) listing all planned off-site events for the period.³ Individual trip packets are still required on top of that schedule.

On the Day of the Trip

Before leaving campus, the supervising teacher completes the Checklist Prior to Trip Departure. Bring a first aid kit, a working cell phone, emergency medications for specific students, a printed list of emergency numbers, and parent contact information for every participant. The supervising teacher, not just the chaperones, is responsible for staying in contact with the school office through the day.

If a student is injured, assess severity right away. Call 911 first for serious injuries, then notify the school. For minor injuries, provide first aid on site and keep an adult with the student until things are settled. Reach the parent or guardian as soon as possible after any incident, and document everything in an accident report when you return. Every driver should save the school’s main number and the OUSD Superintendent’s office at 879-8200 in case they get separated from the group or run into trouble on the road.⁷

1
Oakland Unified School District. Oakland Goes Outdoors – Resources
2
PDFfiller. Day Field Trip Approval Process
3
Oakland Unified School District. Field Trips
4
California Legislative Information. California Education Code 35330
5
Oakland Public Education Fund. Parent and Guardian Volunteers
6
California Department of Public Health. California School Employee Tuberculosis (TB) Risk Assessment
7
Oakland Unified School District. Declaration of Driver Form
8
Sequoia Elementary School. Driving for Field Trips