Schools in Edmonton and across Canada cancel international field trips

Zoe Cogger says two trips to the United States were going to be the highlight of her senior year in high school.

The 16-year-old was set to go with fellow Edmonton students to the National High School Dance Festival in Pittsburgh and to Spokane, Wash., for the annual Bloomsday Run.

But the trips are no more.

Edmonton Public Schools has cancelled all international excursions for the school year, including to Thailand, France, the United Kingdom, Costa Rica and Portugal.

“I was pretty sad when I found out,” Cogger said.

Cogger is among thousands of students across Canada whose school trip plans have been cancelled or tweaked for this school year for various reasons, including global conflicts and uncertainty.

‘Further unpredictability and risk’

Supt. Ron Thompson with the Edmonton public board said in a letter to parents in June that a recent field trip had students come face to face with civil unrest. The board didn’t specify what country the students were in.

“Couple this with reported global fuel shortages, recently reported public health concerns and ongoing military conflict, which introduces further unpredictability and risk to international travel,” Thompson said.

He added that he doesn’t take the cancellations lightly and that the board would reassess its decision before the 2027-28 school year.

The Vancouver School Board and the Calgary Catholic School District both said they’re approving field trips on a case-by-case basis.

“We are operating within an evolving global context and are carefully considering a range of factors in our review processes,” the Vancouver board said in an email.

Last year, the public Calgary Board of Education cancelled all international trips while it reviewed policies on how trips are planned and students prepare for the rigours of international travel. It said recently that trips have resumed for this year.

In Winnipeg, the Louis Riel School Board has cancelled trips to the United States since last October, after Ottawa posted a travel advisory warning Canadians that the U.S. government is no longer accepting gender markers.

The Winnipeg School Division said it’s allowing school trips — but not to the United States.

“Travel to other international destinations may still be considered if it supports student learning or business operations,” spokesperson Jillian Recksiedler said in an email.

‘Complex times’

Public boards in Toronto and Saskatoon say none of their trips have been cancelled.

Some experts say school trip changes are understandable.

“We live in really complex times and international trips are a complex thing to pull off,” said Maren Aukerman, an education professor at the University of Calgary.

“The other side is it is a real loss. There’s lots of research that compares virtual field trips with real field trips and, not surprisingly, you cannot replace being in a different place, exploring a different culture.”

Aukerman said some schools are choosing instead to plan trips within Canada.

Trade war, citizenship concerns

Wayne Smith, a hospitality and tourism professor at Toronto Metropolitan University, said the cost of living has made it more difficult for parents to sign up their children for trips.

Planning trips has also become complicated, he said. With Canada’s population growth, teachers are seeing students with more diverse citizenship statuses.

“I know in Toronto, for example, the amount of paperwork [teachers] have to file to do a class trip is pretty phenomenal,” he said.

“It’s just got really complicated over the last few years, and especially since the vast majority of the trips are south of the border.”

Aukerman said that the trade war has complicated travel to the United States.

Edmonton high school student Nyla Ahmadzai said she isn’t going on any international school trips this year. But she spent all last year helping friends raise money for their planned excursions.

“They did bottle drives, sold chocolates, candies, even posting on social media, asking family members for donations and stuff,” she said. “I had a friend clean cars.

“Now it’s taken away from them, and it’s really, really frustrating.”

Cogger said she had hoped Edmonton Public Schools would consider trips on a case-by-case basis instead of cancelling them altogether.

“It’s better to find a way to make it work because these experiences are a high school experience.”

But there’s an upside.

Cogger said her school is planning a run in Jasper National Park instead of the one in Washington, and she’s not upset.

“I’m glad that they were able to find a replacement.”