dc trip school

• Travel Guide
• Recommended Hotels

School Trips in DC: What Visitors Need to Know

Participating in one of the multi-day school trips in DC is a right-of passage for many 8th graders across the U.S. If you are not visiting with one of these groups but coming to DC between mid-March and mid-June, these are a few things you need to know.

What is school field trip season?

School trips in DC are a huge part of the local tourism industry. Most schools send eighth grade class trips. This is why you will also occasionally hear referred to as “eighth grade field trip season”. Eighth grade is usually the class that gets to come to DC because it’s a final reward before the kids head off to high school.

Trip Hacks DC offers tours specifically designed for school groups . We have led tours with students in fifth grade all the way up to 12th grade. Our tours are best for small schools who don’t pay for an all-inclusive package. For large schools, these services might make more sense.

When is school field trip season?

School group trips in DC typically happen at one of two times during the year. The big one is in the spring, roughly from mid-March through mid-June. There is also a secondary field trip season in the fall roughly from early October through Thanksgiving.

If you’re trying to avoid field trip season the months you want to consider for your trip are: December, January, and February in the winter, and July, August, and September in the summer. Most schools choose to come in the spring because it’s an end-of-the-school-year reward. Plus, the students get to spend all school year learning about social studies and history and then they get to come to DC and see things up close.

Fall field trip season is much less busy since most schools don’t want to do the trip at the beginning of the school year.

How will field trip season impact your trip?

The most important thing to know is that school groups travel together in large packs. So, if you are visiting the memorials, there might be four groups of 50 students or more at once. This can really change the feel of some of the sites, particularly smaller memorials like the Vietnam and Korean War memorials.

School groups are only in DC for a limited amount of time. They need to maximize that time as best as possible. That means that during the day they’re going to be at the sites that are only open from 10 to 5. This includes the museums and the other indoor sites. Then, after dinner, they are going to head out and tour the monuments and memorials. This is because there are not a lot of evening activities you can do with big groups of teenagers.  

The bottom line is that if you’re visiting during spring field trip season you’re going to be sharing those monuments and sites with a lot of other people.

Where do field trip groups eat?

As far as restaurants go, school trips groups in DC tend to stick to a limited number of places. For lunch they go to food courts. The food courts at Union Station, L’Enfant Plaza, the Reagan Building, and Pentagon City Mall are all popular choices. Food courts are ideal for school groups because they’re cheap and they give the students a lot of different choices. For dinner, they go to the inexpensive restaurants that can accommodate groups. This includes places such as the Hard Rock Cafe, Buca di Beppo, Carmine’s, and similar chain places.

Where do school groups stay?

School groups usually stay at suburban hotels because they travel on charter buses. Thus they do not need to be near Metro. Suburban hotels usually offer group rates to schools. Although, you will occasionally see school groups staying downtown, especially if they’re a small group who doesn’t have a charter bus. So if you plan to stay at a downtown hotel and eat at mostly local restaurants, you are probably not going to bump into too many of these groups at those places.

Coming to DC and want to book a tour? Trip Hacks DC was founded by Rob, a veteran tour guide in the Nation’s Capital. Trip Hacks DC provides tips, tricks and travel hacks for planning your trip; and guided tours to show you around once you get here. Our tours are family and school group friendly and our guides specialize in the major Washington, DC sites.  Click here to check out the upcoming tour options  and to book your tour here today!  Feel free to contact us if you have any tour questions

Book a Tour!

Private Tour with Rob Monumental Trivia Tour Historic Georgetown School Group Tours

About Trip Hacks DC

Trip planning resources.

• DC Airports: a Guide to Navigating DCA, IAD and BWI
• The Ultimate Washington DC Travel Guide (2023)
• Hotels in DC: A Guide On Where to Stay
• The 5 Best Local Washington DC Tours
• Washington DC Trip Planning: Trip Hacks DC E-book
• Packing for Washington DC: What To Bring for Your Trip

Newest Podcast Episodes

• Podcast Ep.58 Tips for Attending Pro Sports in Washington DC
• Podcast Ep.57 Everything Visitors Should Know About Washington DC Cherry Blossoms
• Podcast Ep.56 Managing Your Washington DC Travel Expectations
• Podcast Ep.55 What to Expect for Washington DC Tourism in 2024
• Podcast Ep.54 Every Holiday in Washington DC
• Podcast Ep.53 Why I Don’t Recommend Airbnb in Washington DC
• Podcast Ep.52 Washington DC Experiences to DO and SKIP
• Podcast Ep.51 Rob’s Washington DC Travel Philosophy

Proceed Booking

Already a member.

Username or E-mail

Forget Password?

Don't have an account? Create one.

Or continue as guest.

How to Plan a Class Trip to Washington, D.C.

There’s no question: Washington DC is one of the most important places in the country. As the home of our government, countless national monuments and historical and cultural attractions, and known as the museum capital of the country, there are few places in the United States better suited for an educational tour than Washington DC.

But with so many sights to see and educational opportunities to engage with, it can feel like an overwhelming task planning a class trip to the nation’s capital. How do you squeeze in everything you want your students to learn in the little time you get to experience it?

In this guide from our professional class trip planners at Junior Tours , we lay out the step-by-step process to help equip any teacher with the tools to plan the awesome trip in Washington DC their class deserves.

Step 1: Plan the Essentials Far in Advance

Ask yourself:

• How do I plan a trip to Washington DC?
• How long does it take to tour Washington DC?
• How much does the average Washington DC school trip cost?

Like any trip, the first thing you need to do is plan the essentials far in advance. No parent will want to send their kid on a trip that doesn’t have an airtight schedule and itinerary, and the only way to achieve that is with months of careful planning. Don’t show up to class two weeks before the proposed trip and spring it on your students – your trip should be planned months in advance.

Whether you decide to plan your educational tour with our team at Junior Tours or on your own, we can guarantee one thing: the quality of your trip all depends on your planning of the essential details. These are the details you will need to present to students and parents months before the trip to convince them to sign on.

• Length: Figure out the exact time you and your class can take away from school to tour DC. This depends on a number of factors, such as what attractions you and your class want to see, the time the school will let your class stay on trips, and the quality of your itinerary. A short tour can last 2-4 days, while a more thorough tour of Washington, D.C. with Gettysburg and Williamsburg can take up to a whole week.
• Cost: Cost will always be a big issue for many students and parents, and keeping costs low without sacrificing the quality of the trips is a balancing act that takes many trip-planning experiences to perfect. The age and interests of your students is important here, as this will determine the kind of activities that will interest them, and the prices those activities will cost.
• Theme: What’s the theme of your trip? Is it a general learning experience where you will try to cover an overview of the most interesting subjects that the museums and attractions of Washington, D.C. offer, such as the National Museum of American History? Or is it more centered on a certain subject; politics, history, culture, art, or something else? While you don’t have to plan your hour-by-hour itinerary several months before the trip, it is crucial to have an idea of what you want the trip to be about.

Step 2: Try to Contact Your State’s Political Representatives

• What do I want my students to learn from this trip?
• Who are the political representatives of our state?
• What can our political representatives teach my students?

Washington DC is the home of political representatives, from congressmen and congresswomen to senators, and each state has their own representatives. While they tend to live busy lives, they are always happy to offer up a possible group tour opportunity or meeting, led by them personally or their team.

Some tours, such as the Capitol tour and the White House Washington tour, require the help of a political representative to book for your class, so getting in contact with them as early as possible is important. You want to make sure you call or email them early enough that they can clear up their schedule for the school trip dates, and so they can reserve certain venues and prepare meeting rooms for your students.

Help your students realize their political aspirations by getting them face-to-face with someone from their own state.

Step 3: Plan the Itinerary

Ask yourself:  

• What are the most important attractions in Washington DC?
• What topics should my students learn about?
• What are the most highly rated museums?

Now that you know your desired trip length, the desired cost and budget for your students, and the theme you want to plan your learning experiences around, it’s time to start planning the itinerary. And yes – we mean an actual hour-by-hour breakdown of every day you spend in Washington DC.

This can be pretty intimidating, but here are a few pointers:

1) Don’t over-schedule

Many first-time school trip planners make the mistake of over-scheduling their days. We know you do this with good intentions; maybe you wanted the trip to last another 2-3 days but the school administration or parents association wouldn’t budge, so you are trying to make up for it by squeezing in as many museums and attractions as you can.

But you want your students to have time and truly embrace every stop you take. Learning requires reflection, and when you quickly usher students from one place to another, you leave them no time to reflect on what they see. Try to give each museum at least 3 hours minimum; bigger museums should be given 4-5 hours.

2) Visualize your actual route

In our eagerness to make the most interesting trip possible, we as educators tend to go for the biggest national attractions and monuments, putting them on the itinerary willy-nilly. The problem with this? We forget that the more places you put on the itinerary, the more you force your class to travel around from one place to another.

This means it’s important to visualize your actual route. You don’t want your first stop to be on the other side of the city from your second stop, and your third stop to be right next to your first stop. Think of the layout of your itinerary, and prepare it out place by place.

3) Tell an overarching story

Whether you are sticking to a certain subject or just giving your students a general learning breakdown, you want to make sure that the trip tells an overarching story with an overarching learning experience.

While two museums may not have anything to do with each other, you want to plan your days in a way that students will sit back and ask themselves: do they relate? At the end of the day, these learning experiences are all about teaching your students to think , using the information we give them to stimulate their own imagination.

When it comes to planning the places you visit, you will find that Washington DC is known as the national capital of museums for a very good reason: there are countless museums, memorials, and other attractions in Washington DC like the Lincoln Memorial that offer free admission, and they are all worthy of your time. It’s up to you and your students’ interests to just pick and choose places and events.

Some awesome memorials and museums include:

• National War Memorials – Korean War Veterans Memorial, World War II Memorial, Vietnam Veterans Memorial
• National Influential Individual Memorials – Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, Thomas Jefferson Memorial, Lincoln Memorial
• Washington Monument
• Smithsonian Museums
• National Mall
• National Gallery of Art
• National Museum of American History
• National Museum of Natural History
• National Air & Space Museum
• National Museum of African American History and Culture
• U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum

You also want to make sure that your trip isn’t just museums and memorials, but actual places where the bills and laws of our country are made. Giving your students the experience of being in the places where bills are written and laws are passed can be a once-in-a-lifetime feeling for them. Try to schedule tours of the Capitol Building through the Capitol Visitors Center, as well as the Eastern Market.

Step 4: Prepare Your Students

• What should I pack for a school trip to Washington DC?
• What do my students already know about Washington DC?
• What social and cultural elements should my students know to best absorb learning during the trip?

In some cases, student groups travel all the way to Washington DC with students who know very little (or nothing at all!) of what Washington DC represents. Some teachers avoid teaching their students more than a general overview of Washington DC because they are going on a trip to D.C. anyway.

But this is a wrong way in approaching this. Your students should have a foundation of Washington, D.C. knowledge; its culture, its history, and what it represents today. Their trip in DC should be a learning experience that builds upon existing knowledge; you don’t want them spending their first day or two just getting up to speed.

And of course, prepare your students for what they need to pack. Make sure they all have light and small backpacks for the day trips, where they can bring their essentials for any activities you might prepare – a notebook, a pen, and their phone for emergencies.

They might also want to bring a jacket or light sweater wherever they go, especially if your trip is in the fall or winter. And finally – no heels. Wear comfortable shoes you can spend a whole day walking in.

Step 5: Work with Junior Tours for a Perfect Trip

• Have I ever planned a successful overnight class trip before?
• Can I make sure that the itinerary, accommodations, tickets, and every other detail flawless?
• Can I offer my students a better learning experience with professional help?

As long-time educators, we understand the desire to plan the perfect class trip for your students, and doing it on your own can lead to major headaches. With so many things to plan and organize and track, as well as executing the trip to perfection, planning a school trip can be your own personal nightmare.

With Junior Tours, we will handle all the heavy lifting and all the legwork. Our professional team of tour planners have been working with students, schools, and educators for decades, over thousands of school trips all across the United States and abroad. Planning and executing a trip that moves along as smoothly as possible while ensuring that every minute is spent learning or having fun is our forte.

Stop Googling “how to plan a class trip to Washington DC” and just work with people who have done it a thousand times before. If you are planning a class trip to the nation’s capital or anywhere else, contact us at Junior Tours today and find out exactly why we are America’s favorite educational tour planners.

Company Information

• Request a Tour Quote

Tour Packages

• Montreal & Quebec City
• New Orleans
• New York City
• Philadelphia
• Toronto / Niagara Falls
• Washington D.C.
• Williamsburg

Comments are closed.

FOR GROUP LEADERS

For students / parents.

Call (800) 237-4797 Email Us (click) My Account Journal

MAILING ADDRESS

© 2024 JUNIOR TOURS. PRIVACY POLICY

• Professional Affiliations
• The Junior Tours Promise
• Request Quote
• Tour Inclusions
• All Destinations
• Booking FAQ
• Toronto & Niagara Falls
• Online Billing
• Letter of Recommendation
• Fundraising / Scholarships
• Rules & Regulations
• Room List Form
• TSA Travel Tips
• About Junior Tours
• Packing List
• Register for a Tour
• Log In to My Account
• REQUEST QUOTE

REQUEST A STUDENT TOUR QUOTE

Please call 1-800-631-2241 and we can provide you all the information to plan an amazing trip for your students. Or spend two minutes completing this form and we’ll email you an itemized price quote and itinerary within 72 hours.

Tour Information

• Colonial Williamsburg
• Montreal / Quebec City
• Type of Group Please select one from drop down Art Band/Choir/Orchestra Business Drama Family Consumer Science FBLA or Deca Group Foreign Language History Honor Society / Beta Club Senior Class Other
• Please describe your group
• Mode of Transportation Please select one from drop down Motorcoach Air Train
• Number of Days Please select one from drop down 2 3 4 5 8 (London only)
• Approximate Travel Date (the week of...) MM slash DD slash YYYY
• Estimated Group Size Note: Lowest tour fares are based on groups of 40+ Please select one from drop down Less than 20 20-29 30-39 40-55 55+
• Briefly describe your goals for the trip

School / Group Information

• School / Group Name *
• Mailing Address * Street Address City Alabama Alaska American Samoa Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Guam Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Northern Mariana Islands Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Puerto Rico Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah U.S. Virgin Islands Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Armed Forces Americas Armed Forces Europe Armed Forces Pacific State ZIP Code
• Home Address
• School Address

Personal Information

• Name * First Last
• Title Please select one from drop down H.S. Teacher M.S. Teacher E.S. Teacher Principal/VP/Admin Parent Student Other
• How are you associated with the tour?
• Mobile Phone *
• Primary Email *
• Secondary Email (optional)

Referral Information

• How did your hear about us? Please select one from drop down Google Received a postcard or mailer Referred by a friend or colleague Met at a convention DECA Postcard FBLA handbook Traveled with Junior Tours before. Received an Email from Junior Tours Other
• For your FREE Gift Please specify the Mail Code on back of catalog mailed to you
• Friend or Colleague's Name First Last
• What did you search for?
• What convention?
• Nice! Where did you hear about us?
• Comments This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Discover Washington D.C.

Washington d.c. trips for schools.

A Washington, D.C. educational trip gives students the chance to visit the capital of the United States of America and home to our President, our Congress and our Supreme Court. From the White House to Capitol Hill, you can visit the three branches of our government that maintain the balance of power set forth in our Constitution.

Washington D.C. Overview

Washington D.C. is a city rich in history, culture, and politics. Capitol Hill is the active epicenter of the legislative and judicial branches of government and offers students a chance to step foot into the buildings where major decisions affecting the daily life of the American people are being made on a daily basis. A short distance away the White House is home to the President of the United States, head of the executive branch. D.C. is home to some of the country’s most iconic monuments and landmarks, including the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, and the Jefferson Memorial. War memorials such as the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the Korean War Veterans Memorial honor the brave soldiers who fought for their country, while Arlington National Cemetery is both a memorial and an active cemetery where veterans and those who have died in combat in service to their country are still laid to rest today.

There is So Much More to D.C.

Washington D.C. has a vibrant arts scene that includes world-class theaters, music venues, and art galleries. It’s home to many of the country’s most important cultural institutions, including the Smithsonian museums, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and the National Gallery of Art. The magnificent National Cathedral (the 6th largest cathedral in the world!) is one of few examples of Gothic architecture in the U.S. The powerful Holocaust Memorial Museum is a moving tribute to the victims of the Holocaust.

Thanks to the Smithsonian Institution, which includes over a dozen museums, galleries and even a zoo, D.C. can provide students with hands-on, interactive exhibits on a wide range of subjects, from natural history and science to art and culture. Take your students to the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which offers a profound opportunity for students to delve into the rich tapestry of African American history, culture, and contributions.

With so much to see and do in Washington D.C., a student trip to DC with Educational Travel Adventures provides students with an unforgettable educational experience that will enrich their understanding of history, culture, and government.

Capitol Hill Guided Tours

It can be difficult for even the most motivated student to remember what each of those government branches do – which is why we recommend a trip to D.C.! Up on Capitol Hill, we help teachers give students the opportunity to see firsthand how their government operates and to understand the impact it has on their daily lives. Sights include the U.S. Capitol Building , The Supreme Court , and the Library of Congress .

A US Capitol tour for your students will help bridge the gap between what they have learned in the classroom and the real-world application of civics, history, and government. It will provide them with firsthand experiences and insights into the democratic process, the nation’s heritage, and the institutions that shape our society.

Visit The White House

There are few buildings in the U.S. more internationally recognized than the White House. Gather your students in front of this national symbol to snap a great pic, then head over to the White House Visitor Center , which illustrates many aspects of the White House including architecture, furnishings, first families and social events. Walking tours of the White House are available, but must be planned in advance and scheduled through your Congressperson.

Washington D.C. Memorials Tours

Memorials recognize the tireless work of our great leaders and honor the sacrifices made on behalf of the American people. At ETA we know it’s one thing to see a photo of a memorial in a textbook, and quite another to stand in front of a memorial, to sense the cultural weight of an event like a war, or to examine the facial features of a historical figure at the proximity we might examine the face of a friend. We’ll bring your students to experience the Korean War Veterans Memorial , the Vietnam Veterans Memorial , and the National World War ll Memorial and let them stand in front of some of America’s most influential figures at the Lincoln Memorial , the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial , the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial , and more.

Washington D.C. Itineraries

A 6 city tour of the northeast – 8 days.

The People & Places of our History Books

A Day Trip to Our Nation’s Capital – 1 Day

A one-day trip, starting with a half-day drive to DC with no overnights

A Deep Dive Into America’s Past and Present – 3 Days

This three-day, two-night adventure offers students a deep dive into the heart of America’s history and heritage.

D.C. Insider: White House & FBI – 3 Days

A half-day drive to DC with two overnights in the city

Quick Capital Highlight Tour – 2 Days

Start your two-day trip with a half-day drive to DC with an overnight in the city

Washington D.C. & Gettysburg: Iconic People and Places of our Nation’s History – 4 Days

Four day tour through our Nation’s Capital and the Battlefields of Gettysburg where the union almost broke forever

Washington D.C., Gettysburg & Hershey – 3 Days

Three days in Washington DC, Gettysburg and Hershey

Washington D.C. Tour FAQ’s

How does eta help plan tours of washington dc for large groups or schools.

Once you reach out to us, a dedicated tour manager will reply to your primary contact to start planning your trip to Washington DC. They’ll start by asking questions to understand your main goals for the trip, including what attractions you would like to see, what tours you would like to take, how long you’d like your trip to be, how many students will be traveling and other basic logistical questions.. Your tour manager will provide recommendations throughout your conversation as well. All trips with ETA are meticulously planned to meet the needs of each individual group.

Does ETA create complete Washington DC travel packages for groups?

Yes, your tour manager will help develop a custom package for your Washington DC school trip. All packages are custom-made to fit your budget and schedule, and can include everything from transportation to meals to tickets for museums, attractions, tours, and much more. Your tour manager will help you plan and strategize to make the most of your school trip to Washington D.C.

Does ETA provide planning for Washington DC trips for 8th graders?

Yes, we have helped many middle schools plan their annual Washington DC trips for their 8th grade students—and we have received glowing reviews along the way! If you are new to planning your school’s 8th grade field trip to DC, rest assured that we will be able to guide you throughout the planning process and even throughout your entire trip.

Why should we choose ETA to plan our educational trip to Washington DC?

We are a highly trusted and certified tour company that has been helping groups and schools plan educational and performance trips since 1991. For over three decades, we have been committed to executing highly engaging, memorable, and safe trips for schools and large groups.

Explore Destinations

Request a quote online, call 1-866-273-2500, let's build your adventure.

Whether you’re looking for more information, ready to book, or have questions, we’re happy to help! All tours are customized so we need a bit more information to get you pricing.

" * " indicates required fields

Click Here To Register

Home » Washington DC Trips for Middle School

Washington DC Trips for Middle School

Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, is a great destination for middle school trips. It’s rich in history and provides countless educational opportunities. Many organizations offer comprehensive programs that introduce students to the nation’s history, government, and culture.

The Washington D.C. Experience for Middle Schoolers

A typical middle school trip to Washington, D.C. spans around four days. The itinerary usually includes visits to important landmarks such as the Capitol, Arlington National Cemetery, and the Smithsonian Museum. These trips aim to be both educational and engaging, immersing students in American history and government.

The Impact of D.C. Trips on Middle School Students

A visit to Washington, D.C. provides a memorable experience for middle school students. It’s not just a sightseeing tour; it’s an opportunity to step into history, get a real sense of the workings of the U.S. government, and understand their role as future citizens. For many, this trip is seen as a pivotal moment in their middle school journey.

In conclusion, a middle school trip to Washington, D.C. goes beyond the average field trip. It offers students a chance to delve into the nation’s history, understand the government, and appreciate their civic responsibilities. Although planning such a trip might seem challenging, professional tour companies can make it a smooth and rewarding process. At Four Winds Travel, we specialize in organizing unforgettable D.C. trips for middle school students. Contact us today to learn more!

Recent Articles

Beyond the classroom - embark on a spanish immersion journey of a lifetime, spring break scholars - 5 educational escapes to enrich your break, unlocking the windy city: a journey through chicago’s hidden gems.

Group Travel

• International Student Travel
• Music Travel
• Senior Trips
• Domestic Immersion Trips
• Service Learning Trips
• Summer Camp Trips
• Special Interest Trips
• Field Trips
• Vex Robotics
• Church's and Ministries
• Insurance Information
• Client Testimonials
• Flyers & Brochures
• Travel Resources
• Disclaimer and Payment Schedule

USEFUL INFO & SUPPORT

• Get a Quote
• Travel Blog
• Registration
• Privacy Policy

Contact Info

© 2024 Fourwinds Tours & Travel

Submit A Testimonial

• Request Info

Washington High School Program

Get a first-hand look at how the U.S. political system works and the role young people play in our government.

• Request Information >
• Register Your School >
• Sample Schedule >

Use DC as a living classroom!

Close Up Foundation’s Washington D.C. High School Program is a one-of-a-kind trip for students to experience their government in action.  During this six-day/five-night program, students make personal connections with the people, institutions, and iconic sites that embody our nation’s past and present.    

As students tour our nation’s capital and forge new, lasting friendships, they have the chance to:  

• Discuss current issues with experts, policymakers, and  members of Congress  or their staff;  
• Explore Capitol Hill and witness a live congressional committee hearing to see how policy is crafted;*  
• Engage in meaningful discussions with peers from around the country and debate the most pressing issues facing our nation in a Mock Congress;  
• Visit and study the famous monuments and memorials, world-renowned museums, and hallowed institutions that define our history; and  
• Get a glimpse of diplomacy by visiting an embassy and meeting an ambassador or diplomat.*  

Tight on time? You can also get the Close Up educational tour of Washington, DC, in four fun-filled days !   

BROCHURE > EN ESPAÑOL >      VIDEO >

*Subject to availability.  

Participation in a Close Up program requires parent or guardian approval for any participant under 18 years of age. Learn how we keep all students safe, secure, and supervised on every program.

READY TO VISIT DC?

• REQUEST INFORMATION >
• REGISTER YOUR SCHOOL >

EXPLORE ALL HIGH SCHOOL PROGRAMS

Washington, dc.

Six-Day Program

Premier Election Series & Inauguration

Customize a program for your school.

Four-Day Program

Washington, DC & New York City

Washington, dc & williamsburg, new americans program, american indian focus programs, nais student civic leadership summit.

Close Up has decades of grant experience; contact us today for assistance with using your federal funds!

I learned that there’s a huge network of people with the same goals and drive as me…

and that our collaboration really could make a difference. It gave me hope for the future of our communities and our nation!

I plan to introduce Close Up’s professional development to the teachers I work with…

and use this as a part of my school’s requirement that students take action on issues of local, national, and international importance.

I think Close Up’s virtual program is an amazing experience …

I’m truly blown away by what close up’s been able to accomplish in the last two weeks during impact 2020 ….

The material seems very high level, and my daughter’s been very motivated to participate every day. I wanted to be sure to commend the staff on providing such a great experience!

FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA

• Work with Us
• Merchandise

671 N. Glebe Road, Suite 900 Arlington, VA 22203

703-706-3300 or 800-CLOSE UP

CST-1002082-40: Registration as a seller of travel does not constitute approval by the State of California.

• Privacy Policy

• What to Expect
• Travel Confidently
• Our Response to Covid-19
• Testimonials
• Registration & Payments
• Fundraising
• Register Now
• Parent-Led Trips
• Share Your Trip

Washington, D.C. & New York City School Trip 6 days, 5 nights

Washington DC & New York City

The Heart of the American Experience

Trip Length: 6 days, 5 nights

From the monuments and documents that represent the ideals of the Founding Fathers to the brightly lit Times Square, visiting the sights of Washington, D.C. and New York City will put you and your students at the heart of the American experience.

Trip Highlights

• Capitol Hill
• Smithsonian Institute Museums
• Arlington National Cemetery
• Times Square
• Ellis Island & Statue of Liberty
• New York’s Cultural Boroughs
• Broadway, and much more...

Our Itinerary

Below is a sample itinerary that may be customized to meet the needs of your group.

Day 1: The White House & Memorials

• Morning flight from your departure airport to a Washington, D.C. area airport.
• Afternoon arrival. Meet your NationsClassroom Tour Guide. Board your tour coach bus and your tour begins.
• Arlington National Cemetery Statesmen and soldiers of the United States Armed Services are buried here. Witness the Changing of the Guard at The Tomb of the Unknowns and pay your respects at Kennedy’s eternal flame. The Memorial Amphitheater, Arlington House, and Challenger Space Shuttle Memorial also will be visited on your guided tour of the grounds.
• Iwo Jima Memorial U. S. Marine Corps Memorial – Also referred to as the Iwo Jima Memorial, the Memorial is located just outside Arlington National Cemetery and it is dedicated to the U.S. Marines who have lost their lives in defense of our country since 1775.
• White House The“People’s House” is a great place for selfies and group photos.
• Lincoln Memorial Be humbled by Lincoln’s grandeur and reminded of the relevance of his words today. This memorial has long been a tribute to the 16th President’s efforts to keep the country united as well as a symbol for the fight for equality in America.
• Vietnam Veterans Memorial Listed in chronological order are the names of the more than 58,000 Americans who gave their lives in service to their country during the Vietnam War.
• Korean Memorial Walk over to appreciate the symbolism of the memorial that commemorates the sacrifices of the 5.8 million Americans who served in the U.S. armed services during the three-year period of the Korean War.
• Overnight at your Washington D.C. area hotel.

Day 2: Museums & Memorials

• Ford’s Theatre and the Petersen House This restored theatre commemorates Lincoln’s life in the place of his assassination. A lower-level museum chronicles the events of the Civil War and Lincoln’s presidency. Cross the street to tour the Peterson House where Lincoln drew his last breath. Tickets are required for entry to both attractions.
• American History Museum Artifacts that we hold dear proudly tell the story of what it means to be an American.
• Natural History Museum Exhibits showcase unrivaled scientific collections such as fossils, moon rocks, and crown jewels, including the mysterious Hope Diamond.
• Air and Space Museum This is the world’s largest collection of aviation and space artifacts where you can trace the importance of scientific discovery in air and space.
• National Museum of African American History and Culture Tickets are required for one of the newest museums in the Smithsonian complex that “seeks to understand American history through the lens of the African experience.”
• National Portrait Gallery This prestigious art museum tells the American story through portraits of leaders and prominent personalities who shaped our culture.
• Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial The Stone of Hope sculpture and four-acre park space is a place to pay respect and contemplate the meaning of the Civil Rights movement.
• Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial This expansive memorial is a tribute to the 12 years of American history during the time of FDR’s presidency. A sequence of four outdoor rooms, representing each of his terms in office, teach about the life and times of this influential era.
• Jefferson Memorial This memorial features the iconic words of a revered president that remind us “a nation cannot be ignorant and free.

Day 3: Mount Vernon & Evening Activity

• Mount Vernon Homestead of America’s first President and his final resting place, Mount Vernon is George and Martha Washington’s Potomac riverfront plantation. Explore the grounds that include a guided home tour, an active pioneer farm site, slave quarters, and Washington’s Tomb. The Education Center includes exhibits and artifacts about the Washington family and life during colonial times.
• Group photo in front of the U.S. Capitol
• Capitol Hill Go to the U.S. Capitol Visitors Center and Gallery to begin a tour by appointment of the home of the legislative branch. Walk across to First Street to tour The Library of Congress and the Supreme Court of the United States.
• Potomac River Student Dinner Dance Cruise
• Dinner and Theater Performance
• Major League Baseball Game
• Show at the Kennedy Center
• Ghost Tour in Historic Old Town Alexandria
• Professional Basketball Game
• Medieval Times
• Overnight at your Washington D.C. area hotel

Day 4: New York City

• Travel to New York City
• Metropolitan Museum Referred to as The Met, this respected institution “collects, studies, conserves, and presents significant works of art across all times and cultures in order to connect people to creativity, knowledge, and ideas.”
• Top of the Rock Observatory Ascend more than 850 feet up to the three-tiered observation platform at 30 Rockefeller Center for an unforgettable experience that includes a panoramic 360-degree, unobstructed view. OR,
• Empire State Building Observatory Your visit begins in an elegant art deco lobby with murals adorning the stone walls. Visit the observation deck on the 86th floor for a bird’s-eye view of the city.
• Overnight in your New York City area hotel.

Day 5: Statue of Liberty, Times Square & Broadway

• Statue Cruise Take a harbor cruise with stops at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.
• Statue of Liberty National Monument on Liberty Island Climb the stairs to a balcony located at the top of the statue’s pedestal and visit the museum’s Statue of Liberty exhibit that traces the history and symbolism of the Statue through museum objects, photographs, prints, videos, and oral histories. Also on display are full-scale replicas of the Statue’s face and foot, which provide a sense of scale and influence.
• Ellis Island More than 100 million Americans can trace their ancestry to immigrants who passed through Ellis Island. This historic station is home to interactive exhibits that personalize the immigrant experience.
• National September 11 Memorial Plaza The Memorial is a “tribute to the past and a place of hope for the future.”
• Financial District At the heart of American government and capitalism, this district is home to historic sites, new buildings, and important memorials, including Federal Hall, the Wall Street Bull, the U.S. Customs House, and the 9/11 Memorial.
• Tour New York’s Boroughs Enjoy the unique ethnic and cultural areas of NYC, including Chinatown, Little Italy, Soho, and Greenwich. The distinctive architecture, history, and shops in each part of the City are like new worlds to explore. Take a trip across the beloved Brooklyn Bridge before wrapping up your tour.
• Times Square Be energized by the lights, sounds, and people who make this part of New York so iconic.
• Broadway Offering more than 40 professional theaters, you can choose a show that best fits your needs for an unforgettable night out.

Day 6: 5th Avenue & Central Park

• Midtown Take in the sights on a walking tour of the largest commercial, entertainment, and media center in the U.S. that includes Rockefeller Center, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, NBC Studios, and the Chrysler Building.
• 5th Avenue Historic landmarks and stylish retailers such as Tiffany & Co. await your group in one of America’s most expensive shopping districts.
• Central Park Stroll through the oldest landscaped park in the U.S. and the iconic shooting location of more than 300 movies.
• Afternoon departure to your home airport.

What's Included

Accident and illness protection for all travelers

Transportation

Either in the air or on the ground, your transportation will be convenient and comfortable.

Hotels are student friendly with only interior corridors in safe areas that maximize your touring time.

We provide three meals per day including a full student buffet at your hotel each morning.

Attractions

All admission fees to attractions are included.

Your Tour Guide will be an expert on your destination, but most importantly they connect with your students.

Coordinators

Your tour coordinator will secure tickets, inspect hotel rooms, and stay with your group overnight at your hotel.

Sleep worry free. Professional security will be on duty each evening.

Generous tips are provided for your bus driver, tour guide and hotel staff.

More Itineraries

Keep Exploring

Washington, D.C., Gettysburg & Philadelphia – 5 Days, 4 Nights

Highlights include Smithsonian Museums, Capitol Hill, Gettysburg National Military Park Museum, and Liberty Bell.

5 days, 4 nights

Washington, D.C. – 3 Days, 3 Nights

Highlights include Arlington National Cemetery, Smithsonian Museums, Capitol Hill, and the National Archives.

3 days, 3 nights

Washington, D.C. & New York City – 5 Days, 4 Nights

Highlights include Arlington National Cemetery, Mount Vernon, the Statue of Liberty, and Broadway.

Plan Your Dream Tour Today

• WASHINGTON DC
• NEW YORK CITY
• PHILADELPHIA
• WILLIAMSBURG
• COLLEGE CAMPUS TOURS
• TALLAHASSEE
• SAN FRANCISCO
• QUÉBEC CITY
• Washington DC
• Presidential Inauguration DC 2021
• New York City
• Philadelphia
• Québec City
• Williamsburg
• Chattanooga
• Tallahassee
• Costa Rica, Pura Vida!
• Evening Parent Info-Session
• GO – Travel Scholarships
• School Trip Destination Posters
• Air & Space Museum Scavenger Hunt
• GO’s Report Card
• School Trip Packing List
• Trip Portal
• Travel Insurance Coverage
• Trip Cancellation
• Back To School Specials
• Destination Posters
• CFAR – Cancel For Any Reason Trip Coverage
• Travel Insurance
• Daily Safety Review
• We’re Hiring
• Vendor/Partners
• Privacy Policy
• Terms & Conditions
• Liability Insurance
• Travel Documents
• Accommodations
• Motorcoach Safety
• Plan a Trip

• Default HubSpot Blog

GO Educational Tours Blog

Below is a list of all the blog posts you are posting that your visitors might be interested in...

School Trip to Washington, D.C. Cost

School trip to washington, d.c. cost.

What is the the cost of a school trip to Washington, D.C? This is a question that we often receive from trip organizers when they are planning a trip to DC for their students. Our answer? A school trip to Washington, D.C can vary in cost based on transportation, meals, desired passenger count and more. Our goal at GO Educational Tours is to always off the most affordable DC school trip package cost to our travelers. 

Below are some variables that can change your desired trips cost. Our travel specialists can help customize and personalize your DC trip's cost proposal. From choosing the inclusions to the passenger count, everything is up to the trip organizer. 

Distance from Washington, D.C.

Desired passenger count , trip inclusions, hotel selection (downtown or suburban) , desired length of trip .

The trip cost will be greatly impacted by your distance from DC. A group from California for example will be flying and and group from North Carolina might be getting to DC directly by motorcoach. The choice to fly and drive will have an impact on the school trip cost.

Desired Passenger Count

Group travel offers great benefits as all the passengers take on a small part of a larger cost. A full motorcoach will mean a lower cost per paying student passenger. The larger the group size the better pricing we can offer. Most vendors will offer great pricing  the larger the group size and we pass on these savings to the group.

Washington DC offers many free attractions. The museums of the Smithsonian Institution and the government buildings and memorials are all free of admission. This makes DC very attractive. There are however some museums and attractions that do have paid admissions. For example the International Spy Museum is one or the Newseum. Mount Vernon is also another has the fees go to maintaining this precious heritage for future generations. Also meals can impact pricing. We prefer a nicer sit down meal for dinner and on the go lunches in some case. You can choose to have a full meal plan or have students pay for some meals on site.

Hotel Selection (Downtown or Suburban)

DC offers a variety of hotels ranging from downtown to just outside the district to all the way to Dulles airport. The closer to DC the higher hotels prices are. You can have budget properties when you are 10-15 miles outside the city. Traffic is an increasing factor. So if time is of the essence we recommend staying closer to downtown.

Desired Length Of Trip

The more days you spend in DC the more the higher the trip cost. For example the difference between a 3 day DC school trip and a 4 day DC school can be about $150 more. This is a rough estimate we base on a base package.

Our 3 day trips range from $400 to $600 based on the different variables mentioned above. A four day Washington DC school trip will be in the $600 to $900 range. These rough prices exclude airfare of course.

If you have any questions about school trip cost to Washington DC cost please contact our team and we will be happy to design a trip for you and your students.

Topics: School trips , class trips , Washington DC , civics

Leave Comment

Subscribe our blog, most popular, post by topic.

• School trips (93)
• GO Educational Trips (78)
• Washington DC (56)
• travel (56)
• class trips (55)
• educational travel (40)
• education (38)
• history (34)
• students (31)
• School Trip Tips (23)
• Student tours (22)
• Things to See (22)
• International (20)
• experience (20)
• School Trip (19)
• School Trip Companies (19)
• learning (19)
• teachers (18)
• New York City (17)
• student travel (17)
• Uncategorized (16)
• Boston (14)
• classtrips (14)
• Foreign language trip (13)
• field trips (13)
• museums (13)
• planning (13)
• French class (11)
• High School Trip to Italy (11)
• Chicago (10)
• French Immersion Trip (10)
• school group tours (10)
• College Campus Tours (9)
• campus tours (9)
• schooltrip (9)
• Montreal (8)
• Atlanta (7)
• Quebec City (7)
• Virtual Tours (7)
• high school (7)
• presidential inauguration (7)
• travel tips (7)
• french class trips (6)
• Black College Tours (5)
• COVID-19 (5)
• Orlando (5)
• San Francisco (5)
• benefits (5)
• Charleston (4)
• Costa Rica (4)
• HBCU College Trips (4)
• New Orleans (4)
• Travel Scholarship for Class Trips (4)
• arlington national cemetary (4)
• Bucket List (3)
• Destinations (3)
• Florida (3)
• Packing (3)
• Philadelphia (3)
• Sustainability (3)
• middle school (3)
• us capitol (3)
• ville de quebec (3)
• NYC School Trips (2)
• Tourism (2)
• college trips (2)
• french language school trips (2)
• gettysburg (2)
• government (2)
• high school trip to france (2)
• inauguration (2)
• passport (2)
• Culinary (1)
• Freedom Trail (1)
• GO Team (1)
• Go Leaders (1)
• High School Trip to Costa Rica (1)
• Ireland (1)
• Jefferson Memorial (1)
• Motorcoach Travel (1)
• Performing Arts (1)
• World War II (1)
• bethesda (1)
• breakfast (1)
• central park (1)
• civil war (1)
• college (1)
• insurance (1)
• pilgrims (1)
• planningplanning (1)

We have a young team of dedicated travelers ready to make your next class trip a memorable experience for you and your students. GO guides you through every step of the planning process. You can customize all or parts of your trip. Or simply choose one of our Pick,Click & GO trips, our most affordable trips if you wish for an economical and quick trip booking. Planning can be daunting but all our efforts are channeled to make it easier on you.

DESTINATION

Get in touch.

Copyright © 2020 Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

This One Guy Made the Washington DC Field Trip a Middle School Rite of Passage

No, not the cherry blossoms. It’s the middle school T-shirt, the unofficial signal that spring has sprung in the nation’s capital.

Every year, more than one million eighth graders—about one in every three —can be seen running up and down the National Mall in matching school-colored tees, pacing awkwardly in the Smithsonian , taking lunch at the L’Enfant Plaza and Pentagon City food courts, and racking up soda fountain tabs at the Hard Rock Cafe.

A field trip that started as a business idea has since evolved into a decades-long tradition, bolstering economies and creating entirely new ones . And while it’s become the subject of debate in school districts from Ohio to Massachusetts , in DC, it remains both a fact of life and a total vibe .

Filling the Void

It was quite a different experience from what you might expect of DC tourism these days. In the 1960s, due to political strife and moral resentment against America’s involvement in Vietnam, many young people didn’t have an interest in visiting the president’s house. Bus companies and airlines took note, leaving a void for trips centered around our nation’s history for younger generations. Moreover, Wendel tells me that during his initial trip, “I’m listening to some tour guide who’s probably been picked off the corner, and he’s lecturing kids.”

Convinced he could do better, Wendel coordinated the following year’s trip with a fellow teacher, attempting to give his students a more academically driven experience. The year after that, he founded Lakeland Tours solely to coordinate travel for eighth graders to DC Wendel sold Lakeland Tours in 1999, but he estimates the company helped bring a million students to DC overall; the company is now known as WorldStrides , one of the largest student tourism companies in the country.

All the while, much larger trends were emerging as well. One of the most important—beyond the rapid growth in air travel—was the evolving access to museums. In the early 20th century, museums were seen as bastions of elitism, a place where culture lived but only existed for those deemed worthy of entry. “Culture for culture’s sake was what the Smithsonian meant to its lay visitors,” wrote Louise Connolly in her 1914 book, The Educational Value of Museums . “Young people led through it contracted, not the museum habit, but museophobia, a horror of museums.”

But that sentiment began to change heading into World War II with the rise of the museum as an educational companion (the concept of “visual education,” i.e., using visual aids to enforce concepts , was introduced in the early 1920s). No longer were museums reserved just for the upper echelons; they were a place to engage, learn, and question, no matter who you were.

Today, museums welcome approximately 55 million students from school groups .

How Do You Do, Fellow Kids?

For three to five days—the usual length of the trip—students are whisked around the city from dawn until dusk. It’s not atypical for every day to last from 8:30 am to 10 pm, says Lindsay Hill, the associate director of visitor experience and group tours at Destination DC, where she helps tour groups coordinate with tour operators. She says the jam-packed days are a win-win for everyone involved: Students get to see as much of the city as possible, and there’s less time for them to get into trouble (more on that later.)

The usual stops are the usual suspects: the US Capitol, the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the MLK Jr. Memorial, several war memorials, the Smithsonian Museums, Arlington National Cemetery, the National Zoo, the Holocaust Museum, and the Ford Theater. (All of these landmarks are free to visit.) You might also have been lucky enough to get a tour of the White House (also free but more challenging to plan), meet your local congressperson, or travel by boat to Mount Vernon to tour George Washington’s landmark estate. Or better yet, maybe you were whisked around DC in an amphibious World War II vehicle — as part of a so-called “duck tour”—allowing you to view landmarks by land and water (a tour that, sadly, no longer operates).

Meanwhile, the Hard Rock Cafe serves as a beacon of sustenance that helps to fuel all that sight-seeing. The Hard Rock not only plans for these travelers—a student group-focused menu, including a soda, entree, and chocolate chip cookies for dessert, ensures that students are “in and out in about an hour,” says Sara Lester, a regional sales and marketing manager at Hard Rock Cafe—but it relies on them, too. Case in point: Through March and April of this year, they’ve welcomed a total of 25,000 eighth graders, putting them on pace to reach 50,000 students by the end of the field trip season.

Not to mention, the Hard Rock isn’t without some political significance. Among its many pieces of music-themed memorabilia, two, in particular, speak to our nation’s history/sense of patriotism: 1) a saxophone played by President Bill Clinton; and 2) a red, white, and blue outfit worn by Beyoncé.

Not-So-Unruly Behavior

“Eighth graders are in a unique position where they’re big enough to be self-reliant, but not so big that they’re going to run out and create havoc in the streets,” explains John Raymond, the vice president of sales and marketing of student tourism company Grand Classroom, which oversees the travel of some 20,000 students to Washington, D.C. annually.

Raymond estimates that over the course of three decades, there have been just five or six instances where students were sent home on a trip. If anything, such rarity speaks perfectly to the eighth-grade mindset. “You don’t want to be outside of the herd. You don’t want to draw unnecessary attention to yourself,” Raymond says.

It helps, too, that the trip isn’t cheap—prices average from $2,000 to $3,000 per student. Additionally, parents must sign a liability waiver that holds them responsible for any financial damages incurred by their child, and no kid wants to have that conversation with mom and dad.

That said, if there is a mischievous will, eighth graders will surely find a way, an attitude that prompted Wendel, while at Lakeland Tours, to hire enlisted military members to sit outside students’ hotel rooms to ensure they didn’t sneak out at night. “That isn’t to say that the kids didn’t win some of the battles,” Wendel says. “But once we had a lights out or a curfew, with about 99% certainty, we were able to keep the kids confined to their rooms.”

It’s worth noting, too, that any havoc the students create is often unintentional and harmless. Or, in true eighth-grade fashion, just plain awkward. “I was accidentally locked in my hotel bathroom during my eighth-grade field trip to DC,” recalls Dan Howie, now a recruiting manager from North Carolina. “Maintenance had to come in and drill through the lock. It took about two hours for them to get me out, and there was quite an audience waiting to see if I’d emerge. It certainly added to my eighth-grade cool-kid mystique.”

The Kids Are Alright

As a result, what may be thought of as a few days for students to get away from their parents and vice-versa—a pitch that Wendel used while working at Lakeland—has become an opportunity for personal growth and cultural exposure. “Getting outside of your home base and what’s comfortable for you is where the change in perspective and the ability to really understand different cultures and people’s backgrounds comes from,” Hill says.

For that alone, maybe it’s worth the trip—matching T-shirts and all. Want more Thrillist? Follow us on  Instagram ,  TikTok ,  Twitter ,  Facebook ,  Pinterest , and  YouTube .

Colin Hanner is a freelance writer based in Chicago. He writes about food, travel, and whatever else he’s interested in.

• Adult Transition Program
• César Chávez Middle
• Del Rio Elementary
• El Camino High
• Foussat Elementary
• Ivey Ranch Elementary
• Jefferson Middle
• King Middle
• Laurel Elementary
• Libby Elementary School
• Lincoln Middle
• McAuliffe Elementary
• Mission Elementary
• Nichols Elementary
• North Terrace
• Oceanside High
• Pablo Tac School of the Arts
• Palmquist Elementary
• Santa Margarita School
• South Oceanside Elementary
• Stuart Mesa
• Surfside Educational Academy

Martin Luther King Middle

Dedicated to Excellence in Education

• Washington DC Trip

8th Graders

Page navigation.

• 8th Grade Promotion
• End of Year Events
• ECHS & OHS Incoming 9th Graders

DC TRIP INFORMATION FOR 2024-25 SCHOOL YEAR

2024-2025 trip information.

Attention Parents of current 7th graders!

We are very excited to be able to offer a Washington D.C. / New York City trip for the 2024-2025 school year.

Travel Dates: Friday, April 4 - Wednesday, April 9, 2025 (Spring break)

Cost: $2979.00 / Quad room - students

         $89.00 non-refundable deposit which is applied towards the cost of the trip

         $3436/ Double room – parents or guardians only (siblings are not permitted)

The Full Refund Plan- $359 allows you to get your money back if you need to cancel.

Register online at www.worldstrides.com/signup by phone 1-800-468-5899 

* Use Trip ID# 215108 when registering*

FLAG scholarship- Families with annual adjusted gross incomes up to $85,000 may qualify for up to $450 off the price of the trip. You do NOT need to be registered to inquire.

Advantage Payment Plan- allows families to make payments of $149 until trip is paid off, even after we travel! Call Customer Service at 1-800-468-5899 to sign up. Only available until June 01, 2024.

Everything is provided including airfare, buses, tour guides, tickets, meals, nighttime security, emergency care. Learn more here .

If you have any questions, please contact Mrs. Allen at [email protected].  

INFORMACIÓN SOBRE EL VIAJE A  WASHINGTON  DC

¡Atención, padres de estudiantes de 7mo grado!

Estamos muy emocionados de poder ofrecer un viaje a  Washington  D.C. / Nueva York para el año escolar 2024-2025.

Fechas de viaje: viernes 4 de abril - miércoles 9 de abril de 2025 (vacaciones de primavera) 

 Costo: $2,979.00 / Habitación cuádruple - estudiantes

            Depósito de $89.00 no es reembolsable este depósito, es aplicado al costo del viaje

            $3,436.00 / Habitación doble - sólo padres o guardianes (no se permiten hermanos)

El plan de reembolso completo: $359- le permite recuperar su dinero si necesita cancelar por cualquier motivo.

Registrese en línea en   www.worldstrides.com/ signup  por teléfono al 1-800-468-5899 

Utilice Trip ID #215108 al registrarse

Llame al servicio al cliente para ver si califica para la beca FLAG. Las familias con ingresos brutos ajustados anuales de hasta $85,000 pueden calificar para un descuento de hasta $450 en el precio del viaje. No es necesario estar registrado para realizar consultas.

Plan de pago Advantage: permite a las familias realizar pagos de $149 hasta que se pague el viaje, ¡incluso después de que viajamos! Llame al servicio de atención al cliente para registrarse. Solo estará disponible hasta el 1 de junio de 2024.

Se proporciona todo, incluidos pasajes aéreos, autobuses, guías turísticos, boletos, comidas, seguridad nocturna, atención de emergencia. Aprende más  aquí .

Si tiene alguna pregunta, comuníquese con la Sra. Allen en  [email protected]  

• Questions or Feedback? |
• Web Community Manager Privacy Policy (Updated) |

DC Public Schools

Dc agency top menu.

• Français
• Español

Search form

• DCPS School Profiles
• Printable School Directory
• Locate Your Boundary School
• School Planning
• School Data
• School Leadership
• Teachers & Educators
• DCPS Accolades
• Visit Our Schools
• Continuous Education Plan
• DCPS Connected Schools
• Modernization Projects
• School Calendars
• Sustainable Schools
• Technology at DCPS
• Academic Programs
• College and Career Programs
• Dual Language
• Early Learning
• Elementary School
• High School
• Middle School
• Special Education
• Student Assessment
• District-Wide Summer Programs
• Guide to Curriculum at DCPS
• Pre-K to Graduation Policies
• Empowerment & Support
• Afterschool Programs
• Community Service
• Health & Wellness
• School Mental Health
• Food and Nutrition
• Student Safety
• Chancellor’s Student Advisory Board
• Kids Ride Free on Rail Program
• School Counseling
• Student Attendance & Support
• Student Concerns
• Student Placement
• Restorative Practices
• Chancellor’s Parent Advisory Board
• Local School Advisory Teams
• Parent Organizations
• Parent Resources
• Community Action Team
• School Partners
• Make a Donation
• Stay Informed
• Give Us Feedback
• District Knowledge Network
• About Title IX
• Community Engagement
• Family Engagement
• Language Access for Families
• Office of Integrity
• Parent University
• Parent/Visitor Concerns
• Volunteer in Our Schools
• Organization
• Strategic Plan
• Budget and Finance
• Core Leadership Team
• DCPS Policies
• Doing Business with DCPS
• Press Center
• Open Government and FOIA
• Career Opportunities
• Human Resources
• Frequently Used Links
• Inclement Weather Guidance
• Internships

Field Trip Policy

District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) supports the use of instructional field trips to enhance the educational objectives of the school. A field trip is defined as a planned curricular or extracurricular experience for students directly related to and correlated with a specific unit of study or specialized function of the school. Field trips are recognized as a viable means of providing educational opportunities that would not be available in the classroom. All field trips undertaken under the auspices of the DCPS system must be planned and executed in compliance with the rules and guidelines stated in this document. This directive supersedes any other DCPS policy on field trips and student travel. For questions that trip sponsors may have, please email [email protected] .

Note to DCPS Staff: Please visit the Student Support - Field Trips and Student Travel Canvas Page for additional information, including translated versions of field trips forms in Spanish, Amharic, Chinese, and any other language spoken by at least 3% of the school population.

Student Voices: Pathways Trip to DC is Transformative

Undergraduate annika aristimuno reflects on an undergraduate trip to washington, dc to explore public service., share this story.

By Annika Aristimuno PPS/International Comparative Studies ‘26

Before departing for Washington, D.C., I thought my career path was clear cut. I was determined to follow in my mother's footsteps and pursue a career as an immigration attorney. Little did I know the Sanford Pathways program would throw my plans for a loop.

Participating in the inaugural Sanford School Pathways program was an enriching experience beyond measure. It was not just a weekend trip to D.C.; it immersed us in the dynamic world of public policy, revealing countless ways to make a real impact.

Our program began with a workshop at Sanford led by Professor Dani Zapotoczny and Professor Emeritus Tony Brown, which grounded our values and prepared us for the whirlwind of experiences to come.

Bright and early, we boarded the bus, ready for a journey that promised to expand our perspectives. Every moment brought fresh insights from thought-provoking panels with private-sector workers to illuminating discussions with Hill staffers and site visits.

Among the panelists, Jake Van Leer, an ACLU Voting Rights Project attorney, left an impression on me. He candidly shared the challenges of staying true to his passion for voter rights amidst the allure of corporate law positions—a struggle I relate to as a public policy student focused on immigrants and human rights.

His discussion about navigating a different career timeline struck a chord. I've been there—watching friends in consulting, finance, and tech receive job offers while still waiting for advocacy opportunities to open up. It can feel isolating as if you're falling behind somehow. But hearing Mr. Van Leer's story reminded me that marching to your own beat is okay.

Conversing with him afterward about deferring law school shed light on various aspects of the journey, offering insights into the pros and cons of deferring. His story reinforced the understanding that there's no singular "right" path to success—each individual's journey is unique. That’s something worth remembering when the pressure to fit in gets overwhelming.

'My Struggles Were Not Unique'

After a stimulating day of panels, the evening seamlessly transitioned into an alumni dinner. Guided by thought-provoking questions, our conversation centered on recent failures. As our discussion unfolded, I understood that my struggles were not unique. We all encounter setbacks and moments of uncertainty; it's just a part of the human experience. More importantly, these challenges are what shape us and propel us forward. Through shared experiences, I remembered that it's perfectly normal to stumble and fall because it's in those moments that we truly learn, grow, and ultimately carve our path to success.

Our group split into domestic and global policy tracks the following day, and we visited separate sites. On the Global Policy track, we had the privilege of visiting the World Bank and the U.S. Department of State. Before the trip, I knew little about these institutions, but I approached the visits with an open mind, eager to learn.

Hearing about the diverse roles at the World Bank across various departments left a lasting impression on me. One narrative in particular resonated deeply: Roshni Khincha's role in utilizing data to assess policies and drive infrastructure projects funded by the World Bank.

Listening to Khincha, I drew parallels to questions I've explored in my academic journey, particularly in an International Comparative Studies course where I examined wind farms in North Carolina. Through my research, I uncovered disparities between the promised economic benefits and the actual outcomes, such as the discrepancy between job creation during construction versus post-operation. This nuanced understanding of policy implementation and its real-world ramifications aligns closely with my Public Policy 301 class discussions.

What fascinated me the most was how seamlessly I bridged insights from my coursework to real-world applications during the panel discussions at the World Bank. It ignited my curiosity to continue analyzing complex systems and evaluating their efficacy in driving meaningful change. Perhaps in my future endeavors, I'll have the opportunity to examine initiatives like a rural school's female leadership program, discerning its impact on the local population and advocating for adjustments to maximize its effectiveness. This journey of connecting theory to practice excites me about my future career path.

Reflecting on my Duke education so far, I cannot overstate my gratitude for my comprehensive learning experience. Despite the challenges, like the 10-page paper I’m writing right now, I'm filled with a sense of fulfillment as I see the pieces of my academic journey falling into place. Through immersive experiences like the Sanford Pathways trip and professional insights, I'm confident that there are opportunities to pursue my passions and effect meaningful change.

Through immersive experiences like the Sanford Pathways trip and professional insights, I'm confident that there are opportunities to pursue my passions and effect meaningful change.

Annika Aristimuno

Related Stories

Laidlaw Foundation Gift Expands Research and Leadership for Duke Students

2024 Graduation Stories: Journalism at Duke

Sanford Celebrates the Class of 2024

District Department of Transportation

• Bike and Scooter
• DCStreetcar
• Kids Ride Free (KRF) Program Frequently Asked Questions
• Adult Learner Transit Subsidy Program FAQs
• Public Space Management
• Urban Forestry
• Streetlights
• Electric Vehicle Charging Station Program
• Maintenance
• Visitor Parking Permits
• Automated Traffic Enforcement
• Non-Injury Crash Checklist and Guide
• Vision Zero
• Fatal Crash Follow-Up Memos
• School Safety
• Bike & Pedestrian Safety
• Traffic Safety
• Traffic Management
• Americans with Disabilities Act
• DDOT Contractors Information Center
• Development Review Program
• DDOT Infrastructure Projects
• Standards and Guidelines
• Studies and Research
• State Planning
• Notices of Intent
• Transportation Equity and Inclusion
• Public Space Activation
• Transportation Alternatives Program
• Transportation Asset Management Plan (TAMP)
• DDOT in the Community
• For the Media
• Contracting and Procurement
• Meet Our Senior Leadership Team
• DDOT Organizational Chart
• Open Government and FOIA
• Sustainability
• Budget and Forecast

Kids Ride Free Program

Mayor Muriel Bowser established and championed the Kids Ride Free transit subsidy program to ensure that enrolled District students who are also District residents can get to school and school-related activities for free.

The Kids Ride Free (KRF) program allows students to ride for free on Metrobus, Metrorail, and the DC Circulator while traveling within the District.

To be eligible for participation in the KRF program, each student must be:

• A resident of the District of Columbia, and
• Ages 5 through 21, and
• Enrolled in an elementary or secondary public, charter, private or parochial school located within the District or youth in the care of the District.

School Year 2023- 2024

In School Year 2023-2024, DC students can request a new SmarTrip Card for traveling on public transit systems within the District. A supply of the new cards will be sent directly to all DC public and charter schools for distribution to eligible students. Students can collect their new School Year 2023-2024 KRF SmarTrip cards from their school ID administrators like they did during the last school year.

School Year 2022-2023 Kids Ride Free SmarTrip cards will remain valid through September 30, 2023.

Remember: No Card, No Free Ride

Students riding Metrobus, Metrorail, or DC Circulator should always have their Kids Ride Free SmarTrip card with them or be prepared to pay the regular fare for their trip. In addition, students should always TAP their card on the METRO fare gate or Metrobus fare box.

For more information, please review the Kids Ride Free Frequently Asked Questions . If you have additional questions about the KRF program, please contact your school’s ID Administrator or the District Department of Transportation’s School Transit Subsidy Program Office at (202) 673-1740 or [email protected] .

You are using an outdated browser. Upgrade your browser today .

Experience the power of travel

Our commitment to care, tripcare: travel with confidence the tripcare travel system was developed to keep you informed and ready for travel., health & safety on tour sta tripsolutions ensure the highest possible standard in all things health and safety..

EDUCATIONAL TRAVEL AT ITS BEST

All you have to do is inspire - we handle the rest.

Partnering with School Tours of America means all the details are covered, from hotels and flights to meals and booked appointments. Everything is included in the price and coordinated by your personal team of planning experts.

Transportation

Close-in hotels, private security, licensed guides, tour concierge, medical insurance, mytourfund.com, drawstring bag.

FEATURED BLOG ARTICLE SCHOOL TOURS A TOP WORKPLACE Houston Chronicle Awards STA

"every detail was taken care of by school tours of america from the moment we contacted them for a quote, till the moment we returned from our trip. a rare treat for an overworked director." aaron m., director of orchestral studies.

TRIPSOLUTIONS

Rest assured while your child has fun. to protect what you value most, the sta tripsolutions ensure the highest possible standard in all things health and safety. we've been raising the bar for over two-decades, and we don't plan to stop now, need help raising funds for your trip.

Utilize the power of social media with our exclusive crowdfunding platform, MyTourFund.com, where 100% of donations are applied to your trip!

• Norwell High School
• Norwell Middle School
• Grace Farrar Cole Elementary School
• William Gould Vinal Elementary School

Dedicated to excellence in education

• General Trip Information

8th Grade DC Trip

Page navigation.

• Registration
• Forms and Handouts

General Trip Information DC TRIP 2024 TOUR COMPANY

This year we will be traveling with NationsClassroom.  Their organization is comprised of both former educators and student travel professionals that possess more than 50 years of combined expertise. Through the years, [they have served] thousands of educators and tens of thousands of students with educational tours that have provided each of them with their very own distinctive experience of a lifetime." Click  HERE  to read more about NationsClassroom.

SCHOOL TRIP COORDINATOR

Ms. Carolyn Petrell NMS PE Teacher 

email: [email protected]  

We will leave the middle school on Tuesday, June 4, 2024 and return on Friday, June 7, 2024.

The cost for the trip is $1549.00 The cost includes transportation, hotel stays, all meals, admissions, two T-shirts, group photo and gratuities.

All payments will be made directly to our tour company, NationsClassroom. Final payments will be due by April 10, 2024. 

SCHOLARSHIPS

We do not want financial concerns to prevent any child from attending this trip; therefore, a limited amount of need based scholarships are available. Contact Mr. Dupille @  [email protected] by December 15th if you are in need of a full or partial scholarship.

PARENT / GUARDIAN PRESENTATION RESOURCES

• Parent meeting slide presentation  
• NMS Grade 8 Washington DC Registration Packet 
• Questions or Feedback? |
• Web Community Manager Privacy Policy (Updated) |

‘Be the best you can be': DC's longest-serving teachers share their advice from over four decades

Two d.c. public school teachers reflect and celebrate working together at the same school for over 40 years., by mark segraves, news4 reporter and taylor edwards • published may 27, 2024 • updated on may 27, 2024 at 1:28 pm.

Antoinette Johnson and Benjamin Sands have been walking the halls of Coolidge Senior High School in Northwest D.C. for more than four decades.

Both teachers grew up in the District and graduated from D.C. public schools. After graduating from Howard University, Sands became a music teacher and band director at Coolidge 41 years ago.

Watch News4 now: Stream NBC4 newscasts for free right here, right now.

On his first day as a teacher, other teachers mistook him for a student in the lunch room because he was so young.

"They said, 'Teachers are supposed to go to the front of the line.' I went to the front of the line and the lady said, 'All students are supposed to go in the back,'" Sands said. "And somebody said, 'No, he's a new music teacher!'"

We're making it easier for you to find stories that matter with our new newsletter — The 4Front. Sign up here and get news that is important for you to your inbox.

While 41 years might seem like a long time, Sands is not the longest-tenured teacher at the school. That title belongs to Johnson, who has taught at Coolidge for 44 years. She taught for one year at Ballou High School before that.

For her service, Lewis Ferebee, the DCPS chancellor, recently recognized her for being the longest-serving full-time D.C. public school teacher.

When Johnson first started, she said the job was intimidating because she was only 23 years old at the time. Also, she was one of just two woman science teachers at Coolidge.

"The young lady was happy to see me because she had always worked with men," Johnson said.

Johnson wakes up every morning knowing that she'll be welcomed and embraced by a group of loving students when she comes to school.

"The media makes them into some things that they're really not," she said. "Most of the students here – we have a great group of students at Coolidge High School."

Montgomery County teachers protest as budget shortfall and possible job cuts loom

Seeking a sickle cell cure: 12-year-old in DC is 1st patient in US to get new gene therapy

In his 41 years of teaching, Sands has learned to be himself at all costs.

"See, students think they have to be like somebody else to be successful. No," Sands said. "They think because their parents had struggles that they're going to have the same struggles. That's not true."

Johnson gives similar advice, telling her students they shouldn't try to be popular. Instead, she tells them to be themselves and the best they can be.

"I tell my students always to not be a follower, to trust your gut instinct and to do what you feel is best and that you don't have to try to fit in," Johnson said.

While they've both seen plenty of changes in students and teaching, Sands says that the biggest change he's seen is in himself.

"It is a journey and all the things that happen to you in your life, you must learn from them," Johnson said. "Always be open for advice."

As Johnson's 45th year of teaching comes to a close, she's already looking forward to next year.

"Just when you feel like you're tired, June comes along. We go home for the summer," Johnson said. "By the time August and September come, you're just ready to go again. You miss them over the summer."

Both Johnson and Sands say they have no intention of retiring anytime soon.

This article tagged under:

• Current Students

Future doctors dive into health policy in Washington, DC

Joint Medical Program sends 14 students to capital

• 8 min. read ▪ Published May 29
• Share on LinkedIn
• Share on Facebook
• Share on X (Twitter)

The last place that Neema Rashidi ever imagined himself was walking the halls of Congress, wearing his white lab coat and toting a stack of legislative briefs.

But in April, that’s where Rashidi was, along with 13 other medical/MPH students on the UC Berkeley-UCSF Joint Medical Program ’s first Immersive Experience in Washington, DC.

“Before the trip, federal politics was a black box to me,” Rashidi said when he got home. “I’d read a newspaper article that would say, ‘Policies should be directed to fix this health issue or that health issue,’ but it didn’t seem to be something I was supposed to be doing.”

But now he sees a future in the world of public policy, advocating for public health.

“I enjoyed the Capitol Hill visits, and I was surprised by how much I could see myself doing similar work at a federal or state level. That wasn’t something I considered before,” he said.

The JMP group with United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra.

To physician and UC Berkeley School of Public Health Dean Michael C. Lu, that’s precisely the point.

“All too often, we doctors toil downstream to ameliorate the harms caused by policy decisions that are made upstream,” said Dean Lu in an interview. “But to improve population health and advance health equity, we need more doctors to go upstream to effect policy change.”

Dean Lu considers the Joint Medical Program (JMP)—a five-year program jointly administered by UC Berkeley and UCSF—to be the perfect training ground for future physician leaders and changemakers. JMP students first spend two and a half years at UC Berkeley earning a master’s degree in Health and Medical Science, then move across the Bay to UCSF for the next two and half years to finish their clinical training and receive their medical doctorate (MD).

“By being the only medical school in the country within a school of public health, we get to train a different kind of doctor,” Dean Lu said. “At the JMP we are training doctors who are equipped to not only provide excellent clinical care at the individual level, but also bring about real change in healthcare and public health at the community, systems, and policy levels.”

A graduate of the JMP thirty years ago, Dean Lu’s career epitomizes the program’s mission and vision. After spending 15 years as a professor of obstetrics and gynecology and public health at UCLA, he served as director of the federal Maternal and Child Health Bureau under the Obama Administration. In that role, he directed federal programs that served more than 60 million children and families annually and launched new national initiatives on women’s preventive services, early childhood home visiting, and safe motherhood. His work earned him the coveted Hubert H. Humphrey Service to America Award.

That experience showed Dean Lu how physicians can save lives and improve health—millions at a time—and why physicians-in-training need to learn how to advocate for policy change on behalf of their patients and communities. And the best way to do that, he knew, would be to show them first-hand how health policy is made. So, in spring 2024, he brought 14 second-year JMP students, UCSF Vice Dean Peter Chin Hong, and several JMP faculty members to lobby lawmakers, meet top officials at the White House and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and squeeze in a little sight-seeing.

Visiting with Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel L. Levine, MD.

“We wanted to provide a transformative experience for our students, to inspire them to see themselves as future physician leaders and changemakers, to show them how to turn their passion for health equity and social justice for all into action,” said Dean Lu.

Over the course of the week, the students met with Xavier Becerra (Secretary of HHS) and Admiral Rachel Levine (Assistant Secretary for Health); spoke to officials from the White House and federal agencies, and spent a day lobbying members of Congress and their aides to educate them on important public health issues.

Before the trip, the students researched topics of interest, including Congressional bills on access to reproductive healthcare, gender-affirming care for children and adolescents, and immigration and community health worker access. Then, they met with policy staffers from several healthcare and community groups, who shared their perspectives about these bills. They were divided into teams, who studied the different issues and the lawmakers’ voting records. They visited senators and representatives, including Sen. Ron Johnson and Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, Republicans of Wisconsin; Rep. Tom McClintock, Republican, of California, among others.

Each team included at least one student who was a constituent of the lawmaker being visited. Some of the conversations were with the politicians themselves, and some were with staff aides. Although all were cordial, they did not all agree with the students’ viewpoints—which Dean Lu said was by design.

“We made sure the students were able to engage members who represented both sides of the aisle,” Dean Lu said. “I went with one group that visited Sen. Johnson, a staunch conservative. The students went in to talk about Senate bills on abortion care and transgender health. They went in knowing that they weren’t going to change the senator’s mind, but I wanted them to learn how to talk across differences.”

“I was so proud of how our students conducted themselves with such grace and poise, and engaged the members or their aides in difficult yet thoughtful policy conversations,” Dean Lu said. “That’s exactly what we are trying to do – train our next generation of health leaders and changemakers who are able to go into blue counties and red counties, Biden country and Trump country, bring folks together, listen with empathy, bridge divides and find common ground to solve big problems for our country.”

Angelica T. McDaniel, who, like the other participants, is a second year medical student, said that before the DC trip, she had never thought about working in public policy.

“I thought you just go to medical school and become a doctor and work in a clinic,” McDaniel said. “This was the first time that we could see as physicians we could work in many different paths, one being a political office.

“Or, if we don’t go into politics there are still so many ways that we as physicians can be intertwined with the political environment,” she said. “It was so cool to learn how to lobby on Capitol Hill and to learn how we can have an impact.”

McDaniel’s team visited three California congressional offices, where they talked about hormonal care for children.

“There are a lot of people who want to remove funding from pediatric medical residency programs that teach gender-affirming care,” McDaniel said. “These changes in training would affect children of all gender identities who need hormonal therapy. All of the staffers were very respectful and listened to each of us. Having a white coat opens a lot of doors that we didn’t realize when we went in.”

Dr. Jyothi N. Marbin, who directs the JMP program and serves jointly on the faculty of both UC Berkeley School of Public Health and UCSF Medical School, called the trip a “big, big dream.”

“What we try to do at the JMP is to train outstanding physicians who understand the social and structural determinants of health,” Dr. Marbin said. “We want them to understand how policies about housing, the environment or food access are also healthcare policies.

“We are trying to tell students that health policy is their lane,” she said. “We need to embed that understanding and orientation in our medical students from the very beginning.”

In the past, Dr. Marbin said the JMP has brought medical students to Sacramento to learn about state politics, but the Washington trip had even more of an impact on the students.

“We stand at the intersection of medicine and community,” she said. “This is exactly what we should be doing.”

JMP director wins APA prize

Dr. Jyothi Marbin, director of the UC Berkeley-UCSF Joint Medical Program, was awarded the American Pediatric Association’s 2024 prize for Community-Engaged Health Care Delivery in May.

In announcing the award , the APA praised Dr. Marbin’s 20-year history of working to reduce health inequity, from calling attention to the dangerous exposure to secondhand smoke among low-income youth to providing medical care for children caught up in the humanitarian crisis at the US-Mexico border.

Dr. Marbin, who missed the ceremony because she was in Mexico treating children of asylum-seekers, sent a videotaped acceptance .

“I am so grateful to the American Pediatric Association for this amazing honor,” she said, thanking her on-the-ground partners—the Sidewalk School and Refugee Health Alliance —along with her team of volunteer physicians. “I share this honor with them.

“I chose to become a doctor because of my personal conviction that medicine is a path to justice. I chose pediatrics because pediatrics as a profession is inherently tied to community and health equity. I know that so many of us share this commitment to advancing health equity as an integral part of our medical practice.”

In an interview, Dr. Marbin, who has been treating the children of asylum seekers since 2017, said she was first inspired to begin her humanitarian work by her daughter Kaia, then age ten, who saw photographs of children separated from their parents, and asked, “ Mom, what are you doing about this? ”

“I told her that adults were working on it, and she said, ‘You’re doing a terrible job.’ Kaia then co-founded a youth activism project, the Butterfly Effect: Migration Is Beautiful , as a way to show solidarity and extend friendship to children at the border. “We want kids to know that we welcome them. Every kid deserves to be free,” she said.

Since then, Dr. Marbin and her family have been frequent visitors to Mexico, volunteering to provide medical and humanitarian aid to children at the border.

People of BPH found in this article include:

• Michael Lu Dean, UC Berkeley School of Public Health
• Jyothi Marbin Director, UCB-UCSF Joint Medical Program

More in category “School News”:

Teams from eight biotech startups part of 2024 health innovation accelerator cohort, from berkeley public health online mph to leading in ‘a time of great change’, public health graduates celebrate 2024 commencement, from foster care to public health changemakers.