Ethically Speaking

Out-of-State and International Field Trips

Mark Boardman, Attorney, Boardman, Carr, Petelos, Watkins & Ogle & Howard, P.C.

Christy Boardman Kuklinski Attorney Balch & Bingham LLP

The Alabama Ethics Act prohibits a public employee from obtaining a “thing of value” as a result of the employee’s government employment. Does this prohibition mean that an educator accepting an expense-paid trip while serving as a chaperone for students violates the Ethics Act? Fortunately, it does not in most circumstances as the Ethics Act generally allows educators to accompany students on field trips without requiring the educator to pay his or her own way.

The Alabama Ethics Act defines a “thing of value” as:

“Any gift, benefit, favor, service, gratuity, tickets or passes to entertainment, social or sporting event, unsecured loan, other than those loans and forbearances made in the ordinary course of business, reward, promise of future employment, or honoraria, or any other item of monetary value.”

Based solely on this definition, an educator who accompanies students as a chaperone would violate the Ethics Act if the travel agency or organization sponsoring the trip paid that educator’s expenses.

However, statutory exceptions to the definition of a “thing of value” provide some flexibility for such an occasion.

Specifically, the Legislature excluded from the definition of a “thing of value” the waiver of, payment of, or reimbursement for necessary transportation and lodging expenses and similar costs which “facilitate” a public employee attending and participating in an educational function. The statute specifically requires that the employee, however, “meaningfully participate” in the event. Any chaperone can typically meet this definition.

Two dozen years ago, the Alabama Ethics Commission ruled that employees of the Jefferson County Board of Education could accept an expense-paid trip to Washington, DC, while serving as chaperones for the students. The Ethics Commission noted that the school board itself sanctioned the trip and, as was the case here, most boards of education require board-approval for overnight field trips and also require that local school personnel supervise such trips.

This exception only covers “educational functions” in the continental United States. The Alabama Legislature defined “educational function” as being within the continental United States. Thus, a trip to Hawaii, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, or any foreign country is not covered as an “educational function.”

Nevertheless, the Ethics Commission has stated that if more than 12 people are on a trip outside the continental United States, then this event could be considered a “widely attended event” for which an individual who meaningfully participates can receive waivers, reimbursement, or payment of expenses. In 2011, the Ethics Commission issued an Advisory Opinion noting this exception to the Ethics Act and found that members of the Alabama Legislature could accept a free trip to Turkey to promote cultural and educational dialogue between Turkey and the United States. In order to qualify for this exception, either the 12 individuals attending the trip or those with whom they intended to meet must be “individuals with a diversity of views or interests.” A student gathering on a trip overseas with more than 12 people would almost certainly meet that definition.

While many field trips out-of-state and even overseas muster under the Ethics Act, some will not. For example, if an educator is sponsoring his or her own trip and actively solicits his or her own students, that educator would likely be in violation of the Ethics Act. There, the educator’s students become the educator’s “customers,” if the educator is receiving any “thing of value,” such as a free trip. Thus, even on the trip approved by the Ethics Commission for the Jefferson County Board of Education discussed above, the Ethics Commission cautioned that educators cannot promote or market the trip to students. The board of education can do so, but the individual educators who go on the trip cannot. The reason is that it is conceivable that a student could sign up for the trip for the purpose.