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Trips that cost money are not mandatory, feel free to keep your child home that day.
But field trips typically cost quite a bit of money. If you child is on free/reduced lunch many if not most schools will find funds to pay for their trip, if it is purely educational.
Just wondering how much money have you paid to PTSA fundraisers this school year?
Good question I went through all 6 pages (so far) to see the OP's answer. Can'tseem to find it.
We have lived in 2 different states and neither elementary school that my daughter went to paid for field trips. The first school only had one trip a year and the cost was $15 which paid for transportation and admittance to whatever they were doing. Our new school has had several trips already this year and the cost range was between $5-$15. The trips are not mandatory, but your child would need to stay home if they do not attend. The PTO does not contribute to the field trips. Their fundraisers are for funds to help by supplies for the classrooms.
Just on a side note......our old schools PTO paid for classroom parties, Christmas, Valentines Day, etc. Our new school has classroom parties, but nothing is contributed to them by the PTO. All funds for party supplies must come from the parents.
Our county (Loudoun County, Northern Virginia) does use the buses for all school levels. Our schools start the opposite from yours - ES at 7:50, MS at 8:20 and HS at 8:50. Release times are staggered in generally the same way in the afternoon.
There are enough buses to cover field trips and the regular routes. Field trip days for the grades and the schools are mixed throughout the year.
I'm familiar with LoCo. That's where we moved from and my nephew attends a ES within the county.
We always paid for field trip, both in MD and in ID. And they get more expensive as the years go on. In elementary it was $10-$20 to go to a play or the zoo.
Normal to pay in my experience. We pay at the beginning of the year to cover all the trips for the year so they don't have to fuss with collecting each time. The PTO helps supplement for families with financial need (determined based on qualifying for free/reduced fee lunches).
Parents are always allowed to volunteer but never to drive kids there - but if you do drive yourself there, you can usually take your own kid home at the end of the trip, if it's close to the end of the school day. I hate to drive so I always went along on the bus, and they are happy to have some extra adults on the bus to keep things in check.
Lab fees, sports fees, school photos, teacher appreciation, AP tests, choir/band uniforms, admission tickets, parking passes, graduation fees... And then comes the sticker shock of college tuition, room, & board. Buckle up, OP, your wallet will never be the same.
Don't forget yearbooks and the obligatory graphing calculator....
My children go to a public school and the cost of the field trip is stated on the permission slip. We don't HAVE to pay, but if we are decent people, we should. I do.
Cost of public transit, cost for tickets to the event.
I know it cost for my first field trip at school, which was 79 years ago prior to WWII, we paid for our 5 children as they went to school, and I know that my grandchildren had field trips that are paid for, and now our great grandchildren are having field trips that cost money for them to go.
That is as far back as I can go. My school field trips were in California. Our children's field trips were in California, Oregon, Michigan and Colorado. Our grandchildren's field trips added a few more states and our great grandchildren's field have added a few more.
And guess who gets to decide where the money goes. Yes, the people who go to the PTO meetings.
And guess what. Not all PTOs work like a nice, democratic organization. Some/many are good ol' girls clubs for the moms of the in crowd. Just like that little clique they had in high school. Sure, they want you to show up for free labor, or to buy the junk, but they keep scratching each other's backs and keep the same crowd in control. Plus there are many techniques such as not announcing meetings, holding meetings during the working day, changing meeting times without getting the word out. And plain old just skipping the meeting and making the decisions among them. Some of these people started when their kids were in school and never left, now their kids have kids. You put up too much of a fight -- your kid suffers for it in school.
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I went through all 6 pages (so far) to see the OP's answer. 
Can'tseem to find it.
