Travel with high school students

1) Group rates vary by airline and how many are traveling. You need to negotiate or let a travel agent do it for you.

2) Check with your school and school board regarding liability, insurance, paperwork, etc. If the students are under 18, you are responsible but should be protected by your school board.

David,
I've taken a group to Europe before and have also worked for a tour operator planning trips and working with the airlines. Easter Week/Spring Break is the busiest time of the year for group travel and you need to get your plane reservations made ASAP. Yes, you can save $300-$400 a ticket with a group booking. 10 people is the minimum. I'd really suggest dealing with an agency/operator as they have the contacts and can usually get better deals than an individual. I'd recommend Casterbridge Tours [http://www.casterbridgetours.com], a UK company with a sales office in Virginia. They specialize in high school & college groups. No money will be required until within 90 days of the trip start date. With your location, they can probably get some seats saved for you with Delta (or their partner, Air France). A couple of contact names are Pauline & Aaron.

Another teacher checking in. I'd also recommend going through an agent. It's a heck of a lot easier for you to have someone else arrange things, and also be available in case anything goes wrong. You're a teacher, you don't have time to check out various hotels, find the cheapest flights, book tours, or plan itineraries. If you were doing somewhere simple, i.e. London for a week then I might consider doing it yourself to keep costs down, but anything more complicated that involves multiple places and day trips, no way. I'd leave it to the experts.

You also need to check with your school administration - they've been there, done that, and your district likely already has paperwork in place for trips that can apply to your trip rather than you having things redone.

Two other companies that run student tours are:

On-Trek

EF Student Tours

All:

Thanks for the insight and tips. In just a few hours my post has received some very insightful replies.

I am glad that others have gone through a similar experience, and am thankful for Rick and his colleagues for establishing this forum.

David, you need to read other forums also, Fodors has a europeon forum with serveral posts by teachers with experience taking kids to Europe, some of the threads are really good.
Our school uses EF tour company to help with school trips. I don't think it would be wise to do it all yourself.