What to tell your chaperones before a school trip

Before the trip: get in once

• Open the invite email and sign in with Google, Microsoft or an emailed code. Chaperones never pay.
• If the invite never arrives (school email often holds it), sign in with the address you were invited at. The invitation waits at the top of your Trips page.
• Install the app, open the trip on Wi-Fi, and leave it open for a minute. After that the roster, emergency contacts and schedule work with no signal.
• Allow notifications. That is how missing-student messages and urgent announcements reach you. On iPhone, urgent ones come through Do Not Disturb.

Know your group

Learn your students' faces before you leave. Their photos, bus and count-off number are on your phone, and tapping a name shows allergies, medical notes, the medicines their family allows and emergency contacts. That information is there so you can act in an emergency. Don't screenshot it or pass it on.

Counting

Mark students present as you see them. Everyone works from the same list, so you only mark the students in front of you. When the count is done, tap Notify staff and the rest of the staff get the result in one message.

If a student is missing

Don't start a group text. Notify staff has already given every adult the names. Follow the plan the trip leader gave you. If a student leaves with a parent or goes to the nurse, press and hold their name and mark them away from the group, so the count stops expecting them.

Where to be next

The trip home shows what is happening now and next. When the trip leader sends a meeting point, tap the notification to see the spot on a map.

Students can always reach you

Every student has an Ask the staff chat that goes to all the adults at once. Answer it if you are free. If you are not, someone else will.

At night, on an overnight trip

Do the bed check on your phone by marking each room as you check it. It works with no signal and syncs later.

Common questions

Do chaperones have to pay for the app?

No. The trip leader sends an email invite, and the app is a free download for iPhone and Android. The trip is also on the website, in any browser.

What student information can a chaperone see?

The roster, schedule, attendance, rooms and buses, and the health information and emergency contacts of the students they can see. If the trip leader limits a chaperone to one group, they see that group. Parent contact details are visible to the trip's organizers only.

What if a chaperone loses signal?

Once the trip has been opened on Wi-Fi, the roster, emergency contacts, schedule and attendance work with no signal. Marks are saved on the phone and sync when the connection returns.