Overnight Field Trips Might be confusing but please read

[dewey]

Got a five page form from school  to fill out yesterday afternoon..one page that was included had to be notarized.  It was for overnight field trips.  My son is in his senior year and they have computer competition all over the state, some which will be overnight.  One form was if you child was a licenced driver would you let another student in your son/daughters car.  Don't have to worry about that form, my son is not a licence driver, but still would I let him drive with a 17 or 18 year old drive without adult supervision..I don't think so. That was one of the question.  (I remember having an argument with my older NT son whose track coach wanted my son to drive other students to track meets.  My insurance my car no!) 

 

The other page was do you have health insurance..yes

Does your son have any medical problems...I don't consider Asperger's a medical problem ..in general his health is pretty good.  It is what the Asperger causes...in his case anxiety and depression.  So how do I answer that question?

Is you child on any long term medication...yes and he has to take it everyday. This means I have to fill out a separate medication form, with the doctor's signature.  Do I trust the teacher to hold on to the meds and administer them to my son?

Are parents allowed to chaperon?  We will pay our own way and will drive some of the students. 

No, only school facility...but my husband has had police clearance..for the past 25 years and did have school board clearence but hasn't renewed it for this year.  I remember the investigation.  They even questioned me .

 

To top this whole thing off.  I was the one who posted the field trip from hell about a year and half ago.  When my son got lost on a field trip and the teacher had no clue that he was lost

 

Last year one of my son's friends went on one of the field trips, she told me her son survived on peanut butter crackers the whole weekend.  The teacher in charge just took them to Walmart and told them to buy food. So my friend's son bought peanut butter crackers.

I have a feeling that my son my be excluded from the trips because of the medication and his disability, which I know is discrimination,  but this time I think discrimination might be a good thing.  I hope there will be some local competions that he can be a part of.

 

[micO]

T went on a 3 day field trip 2 years ago, when he was in 9th grade.
Not only was it a 3 day trip, but it was to Virginia and we live in Rhode Island- imagine my fear level! and neither my husband nor I went with him as chaperones (no clearence, since we moved to the US a few years prior to that and they couldn't check things out).

Anyway, we filled out the forms and wrote about his Asperger's and his medications (since he takes meds, we had to explain why, so we had to write about the Asperger's. Plus it's all in his school file anyway). We also wrote that he can take his own meds, but an adult has to check with him that he DID take them in the morning and in the evening.
We talked to the nurse that went along with them as well and made sure that she's aware of what she can expect with him in certain situations and what to do in case things get out of hand, but also said that so far he had no problems when he was away from us.

They took him with no problem and he had no problem the entire trip!
He was with 3 other guys in a room (had no problem there, even though he didn't know those kids before), took his meds on time (we checked on him by phone every day in the evening and kept our fingers crossed that they are checking on him in the morning , which they did), he did ok with the food (he has food issues, so ate more bread rolls than actual food, but he also ate some food and he wan't hungry nor unhappy, and that's what's important to me), was fine even with the stress that went along with being in a competition- it was a band competition thing.

He came home so happy and proud of himself... and we were happy that we let him do this and see that he can!

Now, I'm not saying that every Aspie Can do this, BUT if your son doesn't melt down in public when he's not near you, and he can take care of himself (regular stuff like shower, food, clothes...) and he wants to go and try this, then maybe you should consider letting him go...especially at the age of 18yo.

As parents, we need to learn to let go a little bit at a time and see how independent our kids can be, otherwise, they will never get to be independent at all!

Michal

[dewey]

Quoting micO:

T went on a 3 day field trip 2 years ago, when he was in 9th grade.
Not only was it a 3 day trip, but it was to Virginia and we live in Rhode Island- imagine my fear level! and neither my husband nor I went with him as chaperones (no clearence, since we moved to the US a few years prior to that and they couldn't check things out).

Anyway, we filled out the forms and wrote about his Asperger's and his medications (since he takes meds, we had to explain why, so we had to write about the Asperger's. Plus it's all in his school file anyway). We also wrote that he can take his own meds, but an adult has to check with him that he DID take them in the morning and in the evening.
We talked to the nurse that went along with them as well and made sure that she's aware of what she can expect with him in certain situations and what to do in case things get out of hand, but also said that so far he had no problems when he was away from us.

They took him with no problem and he had no problem the entire trip!
He was with 3 other guys in a room (had no problem there, even though he didn't know those kids before), took his meds on time (we checked on him by phone every day in the evening and kept our fingers crossed that they are checking on him in the morning , which they did), he did ok with the food (he has food issues, so ate more bread rolls than actual food, but he also ate some food and he wan't hungry nor unhappy, and that's what's important to me), was fine even with the stress that went along with being in a competition- it was a band competition thing.

He came home so happy and proud of himself... and we were happy that we let him do this and see that he can!

Now, I'm not saying that every Aspie Can do this, BUT if your son doesn't melt down in public when he's not near you, and he can take care of himself (regular stuff like shower, food, clothes...) and he wants to go and try this, then maybe you should consider letting him go...especially at the age of 18yo.

As parents, we need to learn to let go a little bit at a time and see how independent our kids can be, otherwise, they will never get to be independent at all!

Michal

I have no problem letting him go on the field trip, but after I heard about my friend's son and the peanut butter crackers that concerned me a bit.  If the adults can not provide a proper place for the students to eat how will they supervise my son to take his medication?  There will also be a lot of medical forms to fill out to administer the medication.  You could not believe the forms my son's doctor had to fill out just so he could use over the counter ear drops when he went swimming in school.  School nurses are unheard of  in South Florida, if one was going on the trip I would feel a lot better.  My son would have no problems with the other students going on the trip because those are the friends he hangs out with.