Take Community Transit for your next school field trip

Taking a field trip with your class is a memorable and fun part of the school year for many kids. It’s a chance to leave the classroom behind and experience a new place alongside classmates.  

A teacher in the Edmonds School District is taking his lessons a step further by using public transit for class field trips. Along the way, he’s showing students how to navigate transit independently while exploring the beauty of the Pacific Northwest. 

Taking transit to go on field trips 

Doug Johnson is a sixth-grade teacher at Chase Lake Elementary School in Edmonds. He first started taking his classroom on field trips with transit after Community Transit visited his school to show students how to use transit, and each kid was given a youth ORCA card.  

Since then, Johnson and his students have taken monthly field trips with Community Transit buses, Link light rail, and Washington State Ferries. They took a Community Transit bus to the Edmonds waterfront and boarded a ferry to get to Kingston. They’ve also combined bus and Link light rail to visit the University of Washington and Washington Park Arboretum in Seattle. 

 This year, Johnson and his class are visiting the Seattle Art Museum, MoPop, and other educational locations that many of these students may have never visited before.  

Reducing field trip costs and creating learning opportunities 

“By using Community Transit, we keep costs down and increase access to experiential learning,” Johnson said. Youth ages 18-and-under ride for free on local transit, so it doesn’t cost anything for students to take the bus or light rail.  

He added that renting buses through school districts can be expensive, and school buses typically need to be returned early in the day to be ready for end-of-the-day school drop-offs. 

Johnson also said taking public transit for field trips offers a valuable learning opportunity for students. They “learn how to utilize the public transportation system and learn valuable skills in understanding schedules, trip organization, and the use of maps,” he said. 

Making your field trip on transit possible  

“Some teachers might worry about using public transit, but we've had great success,” said Johnson. “We have found the drivers to be very helpful, and our students have learned to show excellent behavior on the bus.”  

His tips for keeping things safe on the trip include:  

• Organizing the students into groups before boarding 
• Doing frequent headcounts 
• Making sure everyone is on the same bus or light rail car 
• Having a teacher or chaperone be the last to board and exit to make sure everyone is accounted for.  
  

“Staying organized is key,” said Johnson. “We love Community Transit!”  

Plan your field trip on transit today  

Community Transit buses are not available to rent for field trips, but groups are welcome to use regular public transit service.

Planning a field trip by bus is like planning a trip for an individual rider. Start by using Community Transit’s Plan My Trip tool to enter your starting point, destination, and desired arrival time. From the Plan My Trip Tool, you can click on a specific stop to see how busy thatstop typically is at that point in the day. 

For help over the phone, you can call Community Transit’s Customer Care team to get personalized trip planning assistance. Customer Care is available Monday through Friday from 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., and weekends from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., and can be reached at  (425) 353-7433. 

Before your trip, we also recommend signing up for Rider Alerts so you can receive notifications about service disruptions or delays. If your trip includes Link light rail, be sure to sign up for Sound Transit service alerts as well. 

Want Community Transit to visit your classroom?  

Community Transit offers programming for schools and community partners that helps teach students transit basics like: how to plan a route using online tools, how to safely wait for and board a bus, how to read a bus stop sign and schedule, and how to properly load their bike on the front of the bus. This program is designed for students ages 10-and-up. Learn more about our Youth Program.