July 4, 2017 was a warm and sunny day. The sparkling waters of Big Trout Lake, deep in the heart of Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario Canada, beckoned the group of teenage students on an outdoor education trip with their school.

The 16 students, on the third day of a six-day canoe expedition with their Toronto-area secondary school, had arrived at their lakeside campsite after a day of travel. They were standing and playing in waist-deep water, supervised by three leaders.

Fifteen-year-old Jeremiah Perry was on the wilderness trip, along with his older brother Mario. Their mother had been unable to afford swim lessons, and Jeremiah didn’t know how to swim. 

Jeremiah went into the lake, disappeared under the water, and did not resurface. Trip leaders searched for him unsuccessfully. The following day, search and rescue divers recovered Jeremiah’s body.

The Need for Assessment of Conformance to Standards

During the investigations that followed Jeremiah’s tragic death, it was found that the Toronto District School Board required students to pass a swim test before going on canoe trips. Jeremiah—and about half of the students on the trip—had not passed the test, but were allowed to participate anyway.

The lead school teacher organizing the trip acknowledged that they did not follow all the rules set by the Toronto District School Board, as he believed they were “impractical or unnecessary.”

Safety standards existed—but they were not followed. And there was not an effective mechanism to assess whether or not the safety standards were or were not met.

Conformance Assessment at Toronto District School Board

The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) found that their safety requirements were sufficient—if they were to be followed, which was not the case with the ill-fated Algonquin Park canoe expedition.

The school board strengthened its processes to ensure that their safety requirements, such as passing a swim test, are followed. They did this by:

• Requiring the school principal to review documentation showing that students have passed the appropriate tests, before the principal can approve the trip
• Requiring that all students participating in a pre-trip canoe/swim test be given their test results
• Requiring that guardians/parents of students going on a trip with canoeing or swimming receive and acknowledge their child’s canoe/swim test results prior to the trip

Although the school board felt their safety requirements were adequate, they also added new rules, including wearing life jackets at all times and holding a mandatory swim test at the trip location, noting the difference between doing a swim test in a pool and in the cold water of an open lake or river.

TDSB updated their Excursions Policy to have the Superintendent (along with the principal) verify swim results, and established an Excursion Vendor List with approved activity locations. 

An online Excursion Management Application was created to standardize trip planning. Information about the Ontario Physical Activity Safety Standards in Education was integrated into the platform to help ensure teachers and administrators are aware of the safety standards. 

Conformance Assessment at All Ontario School Boards

Each school board in the province of Ontario can set their own safety standards for outdoor education trips and other activities. School boards often use the Ontario Physical Activity Safety Standards in Education (OPASSE), published by the nonprofit Ontario Physical and Health Education Association (OPHEA), as a reference. School boards either adopt the OPASSE standards without change, or modify the standards and adopt the modified version. 

An assessment conducted for Ontario’s Ministry of Education found that the majority of school boards have a process to review/monitor schools’ implementation of board policies. However, the assessment found that most boards don’t conduct audits to ensure compliance. Some conformance assessments were informal, such as an agenda item on recurring meetings. 

The assessment report recommended developing guiding parameters and tools—such as a standardized checklist—to evaluate school compliance with board policies, in order to strengthen assessment of school compliance with those policies.  

The report suggested developing a standardized monitoring report form, which schools would regularly fill out and submit to their school board. The school board, in turn, would have a standardized process for addressing deficiencies identified in the monitoring report.

A New Global Standard for Youth and School Trips

OPHEAS’s safety standards for outdoor education activities in Ontario are generally considered to be well-developed. They are one of a jumble of standards, requirements and practices that inform outdoor and expedition safety in Ontario, including those of Paddle Canada and the Outdoor Council of Canada, along with regulations for guided excursions with human-powered vessels under Transport Canada’s Small Vessel Regulations (including requirements on PFDs, signaling devices, first aid kits, helmet use, float plans and safety briefings). 

But none of these standards, requirements and practices are designed for global use.

A convenor of a risk management-focused technical committee of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) learned about Jeremiah’s death on Big Trout Lake. To help prevent similar tragedies on youth and school trips anywhere in the world, he proposed to ISO the development of a global safety standard for youth and school trips. 

The work group responsible for developing the standard referenced a number of resources, including:

• ISO 31030 — Travel risk management — Guidance for organizations
• The British Standard BS 8848 — Specification for the provision of visits, fieldwork, expeditions and adventurous activities outside the United Kingdom
• Guidelines for school trip safety published by a German insurance association (English translation)
• French youth and school trip regulations
• ISO 21101 on adventure tourism safety management system requirements

After seven years and the involvement of individuals from 63 countries, the new standard, ISO 31031:2024 — Managing risk for youth and school trips, was published in late 2024. 

ISO 31031: Managing Risk for Youth and School Trips

ISO 31031 is the result of ISO’s rigorous and well-established process for development of consensus standards. 

It seeks to support the growth, learning and development of young people—up to 24 years old—through exploring new environments and cultures, and meeting new people, while suitably reducing risks. 

The standard is applicable to any organization or group providing trips for children and youth outside of their usual place of operation (but not for situations like minors traveling with their families). 

The standard applies to trips of any length to any destination, domestic or international. It can be used for both lower-risk and high-risk trips, and trips for a variety of purposes, from education to research and recreation. 

ISO 31031’s Guidelines

ISO 31031 has six main categories:

• Understanding the organization and its context
• Establishing the framework for managing risk for trips
• Risk assessment
• Risk treatment
• Communication and consultation
• Program evaluation and continuous improvement

ISO 31031’s guidance says:

The trip organizer should clearly understand risk factors that may exist internal to the trip organizer, such as its internal safety guidelines, as well as external risk factors, for example natural hazards and access to emergency services.

The trip organizer should determine which risks can be managed in-house, and when a competent third-party provider should be engaged.

Top management should show its commitment to risk management, for example by ensuring the necessary safety resources are available, conducting safety reviews, and promoting continuous improvement.

There should be a high-level document describing the organizer’s risk management strategy, and that the document should be communicated throughout the organization.

Stakeholder roles and responsibilities should be clear. An emergency plan should be in place. Risks should be identified and treated. Treatment can involve avoiding a risk entirely, or using insurance and contractors to transfer risk.

A process for screening potential participants should be established. A child safeguarding procedure should be in place, and background checks for leaders should be conducted. Participants should be appropriately supervised.

Appropriate medical, evacuation, and repatriation insurance should be in effect. Medical and security support services should be available as needed.  

Risks of trip activities (including transportation) and accommodations should be assessed and treated. 

A contingency plan for altering the trip itinerary should be in place. 

Participants (and guardians/parents of minor participants) should be aware of and consent to the risks. 

Processes for communicating about safety issues and emergency response should be in place. 

Relevant documentation (such as passports and incident response plans) should be readily available and securely stored.

The standard has an especially well-developed and detailed set of considerations for safeguarding (protecting children and other vulnerable persons from abuse, harm and neglect). 

Much of the other guidance in the 56-page standard is fairly general—for example, that the trip organizer should “outline key processes and their interactions.” 

To a certain extent, however, a high-level approach is inevitable, as the standard addresses an enormous diversity of trip types and purposes, anywhere in the world.

ISO 31031: Non-Certifiable Guidance

ISO 31031 is written in a conversational, narrative style, rather than with technical writing convention where each criterion is on a separate line in an enumerated list. The standard uses the term “should,” rather than “shall.”

This is because ISO 31031, according to the convenor of the ISO technical committee which developed the standard, is a “guidance standard,” rather than a “requirement standard.”

The convenor stated, “Requirements standards (e.g., ISO 9001, ISO 14001) use “shall” because they’re meant to be certifiable. Guidance standards (e.g., ISO 26000, ISO 31031) use “should” because they’re non-certifiable—they offer advice, not requirements.”

ISO distinguishes between two types of standards—those containing only recommendations, and standards (which ISO calls a ’Type A’ Management System Standard, or MSS) containing requirements.

ISO says, “A Type A MSS contains requirements against which an organization can claim conformance, whereas a Type B MSS does not.”

ISO goes on to say, “To claim conformance with a standard, an organization needs evidence that it is meeting the requirements.”

Evidence-gathering, ISO says, is generally done by undertaking an audit, and a third-party audit can result in certification.

ISO notes, “Certification can only take place against a document that contains requirements. Therefore, Type B MSS cannot be certified against.”

Conformance and Certification

The distinction between a ‘Type A’ Management System Standard and a ‘Type B’ Management System Standard in the ISO classification of standards is not universally understood.

The ISO community is aware that there is confusion about this. The ISO convenor says that ISO is preparing “additional communication clarifying that ISO 31031 is not a certifiable standard at this time.”

If ISO 31031 is not a standard against which an organization can claim conformance, and is not a standard that can be certified against, what are the implications if an organization does claim they conform to ISO 31031, or accepts a certification of conformance to the standard? 

Claiming that one conforms to a standard that the standards-developer says does not contain requirements against which an organization can claim conformance might potentially be worse than not claiming conformance at all.

If an incident occurs, a plaintiff’s attorney might attempt to use an impermissible claim of conformance to promote the idea that the organization claiming conformance to a safety standard does not understand even the basics of how the safety standard is designed to work. This could potentially undercut an organization’s claim that it appropriately understands risk management for its activities, which could lead to reputational or other harm.

Using ISO 30101

The ISO convenor noted that although ISO 31031 is not intended for formal certification, “several organizations offer services to help institutions align with its principles through training, assessments, and consultation.”

ISO says that the guidance in ISO 31031 can be used to create safety procedures, or to review or benchmark safety procedures already in place, and to build on those pre-existing procedures as appropriate.

ISO 31031 can offer useful, reliable safety guidance to any organization providing youth or school trips. And professional support in helping an organization align with the principles within ISO 31031 can be valuable—for the organization, its participants and staff, and the travel sector overall.

Other Safety Standards

Organizations offering travel experiences, and which are interested in a standard whose criteria they can state they meet, and which have the option for a third-party conformance assessment, have a number of standards they can consider to see if the standard is a good fit for their needs.

Standards may be designed to apply to certain activities or be restricted to specific geographical locations, and so may not be well-suited for all organizations.

• BS 8848 — Specification for the provision of visits, fieldwork, expeditions and adventurous activities outside the United Kingdom. This standard, first published in 2007 by the renowned British Standards Institution (BSI), is a venerable and well-respected standard in the adventure and travel sector. It does contain requirements, and so is suitable for self-declaration of conformity, or formal certification. 
• Singapore Standard 710:2024, Code of practice for outdoor adventure education (OAE) activities. This 130-page standard, published in 2024 by Singapore’s standards-publishing body, offers carefully developed and exquisitely detailed guidance for adventurous activities in Singapore, including expeditions occurring in the country and in surrounding waters.
• Australia, USA and Canada camp accreditation.  Trip-and-travel camps can be accredited by their national, provincial or territorial accrediting body.
• New Zealand Safety Audit Standard for adventure activities. This well-developed safety standard has been used as a model for risk management standards for excursions and other travel and adventure experiences around the world. 
• ISO 31030:2021 — Travel risk management — Guidance for organizations. While not specific to youth and school trips, this Type A MSS gives general travel safety direction with ISO’s world-class reputation for reliability and quality. 
• Viristar Adventure Safety Accreditation. This standard, published in 2024, applies to adventure travel programs anywhere in the world. The 116-page standards manual has 100 standards with detailed explanations, and is backed by a rigorous conformance assessment process.

A variety of other standards that can apply to travel programs, such as those from Aventure Écotourisme Québec and Adventuremark, may also be considered. A selection of safety standards that can apply to travel experiences, particularly those with an adventure component, is provided here.

Jeremiah’s Legacy

Jeremiah Perry was a polite and loving boy with an indomitable spirit to learn. His principal recognized him for his desire to help others, and said, “Jeremiah was well-respected by the staff, students and community.”

The high school Jeremiah attended renamed its gymnasium and dedicated a plaque in memory of him. And Jeremiah’s tragic death on a summer-school outdoor education experience for under-served youth led to changes in safety standards, and assessment of conformance to those standards, across the Canadian province of Ontario—and, through the leadership of the ISO community, to the publication of a thoughtfully crafted ISO standard that can help organizations anywhere in the world successfully manage risks on youth and school trips.

The publication of ISO 31031, after seven years of hard work by a talented team of safety professionals, is an important advance in supporting safety and quality, and can help bring alive ISO’s mission is to make lives easier, safer and better – for everyone, everywhere.