Beyond the Classroom: ISO 31031’s Blueprint for Safer Youth Travel
Every year, countless young people set off on journeys that spark curiosity, foster growth, and build lifelong memories—whether through a class visit to a local museum or a multiweek adventure abroad. From schools and youth organizations to cultural, religious, and commercial groups, a diverse array of institutions orchestrates these transformative experiences, each presenting its own unique set of opportunities and challenges. With trips spanning everything from educational workshops and sports competitions to cultural exchanges and community service, ensuring the safety and well-being of young travelers has never been more crucial.
Enter ISO 31031:2024, Managing Risk for Youth and School Trips—a standard designed to elevate risk management for youth and school trips worldwide.
What is ISO 31031:2024?
Released in October 2024, ISO 31031 is a new international standard that provides guidance on managing risks for youth and school trips, focusing on the safety and well-being of children and young adults during domestic and international travel. In an era when global travel has become an integral part of educational experiences, the ISO 31031 standard furnishes a structured framework that allows schools and institutions to assess and mitigate risks associated with international and domestic trips.
As the complexity and volume of organizational needs constantly increases, so do the potential risks and hazards associated with trips. While it is true that risks like car accidents or natural disasters are hard to predict, many travel risks are potentially avoidable, if appropriate checks and preparations are carried out in advance.
According to research from the U.S. National Center for Injury Prevention and Control and International Organization for Standardization (ISO), many traveling children sustain injuries, harm, and even fatalities during trips. Many of these injuries and fatalities are a result of lack of knowledge or carelessness that should have been mitigated by more precise planning.
The new standard aims to give a strategic guidance on two major components:
- How to manage travel-related threats for children and youths
- How to prevent incidents by providing a structured approach on handling the risks associated with students, universities, and school travel—both domestic and international
Attention to safeguarding issues is a significant consideration with respect to children and youths, who do not always have sufficient experience or knowledge to deal properly with unfamiliar situations and environments. So, this new standard will assist trip organizers in achieving the broader range of trip objectives in a way that ensures that uncertainty and risk exposure are effectively managed and controlled.
The new ISO 31031 standard addresses the key aspects that educational institutions should focus on to safeguard their staff before, during, and after travel.
Promoting a Culture of Travel Risk Management
A central objective of ISO 31031 is to foster an organizational culture—one in which the risks associated with planning and conducting trips for children and youth are acknowledged, properly resourced, and systematically managed, while the corresponding benefits for organizations and stakeholders are fully appreciated. These mutually reinforcing benefits include, but are not limited to:
- Advancing inclusive practices in trip management to ensure broader participation
- Enhancing the likelihood of achieving the cultural, educational, and developmental aims that underpin such excursions
- Bolstering staff confidence in the robustness of health, safety, and security arrangements related to travel
- Supporting progress toward the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by promoting inclusive, high-quality education, lifelong learning, and the social dimensions of sustainability
Many youth organizations and trip providers may already have established policies, risk management strategies, and safeguarding protocols to address travel-related risks. For these entities, ISO 31031 serves as a valuable tool for reviewing, benchmarking, and, where appropriate, refining existing measures or developing additional protocols for new contexts and activities. Conversely, for groups lacking such frameworks—particularly those organizing one-off or ad hoc trips—the standard provides comprehensive guidance for creating effective policies and procedures from the ground up.
It is important to note that the definition of “youth” can vary across cultures and legal jurisdictions. However, for the purposes of ISO 31031, youths are defined, in alignment with the United Nations, as individuals under the age of 25, regardless of their affiliation with educational institutions.
Factors Underscoring the Need for ISO 31031
Undoubtedly, school trips constitute an integral component of education. They afford students valuable opportunities for experiential learning, cultural enrichment, and personal development. Nevertheless, such excursions inherently involve a spectrum of risks that must be carefully managed. A significant proportion of incidents occurring during school trips are, in fact, preventable through meticulous planning and the implementation of robust risk management practices. These findings highlight several critical factors that underscore the necessity for an overarching framework such as ISO 31031 to guide and standardize risk mitigation efforts in the context of educational travel.
Broadening boundaries: The rising complexity of educational travel. From one-day trips to international excursions, today's school trips are supposed to be more diverse and complex than those organized prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. This variety increases the number of risks and challenges that must be managed effectively. As educators consider an evolving landscape of both medical and security risks, they face more complex safety challenges than before.
Shielding minors: The essential duty of supervisors. Supervisors play a crucial role in safeguarding minors during school-related travel, as young participants are particularly vulnerable to accidents, health issues, and security threats. ISO 31031 addresses these risks by providing structured guidance in three core areas: comprehensive risk assessment tailored to each trip’s context; maintenance of appropriate supervision ratios with qualified staff; and robust emergency response plans to ensure that all stakeholders are prepared for incidents ranging from medical emergencies to security threats.
Harmonizing school travel: The push for a global standard. With the participation of millions of students in educational excursions worldwide, the imperative for a standardized methodology in risk management has become increasingly pronounced. ISO 31031 provides a comprehensive, internationally applicable framework that organizations everywhere can implement to enhance the safety and security of school travel. Closely aligned with ISO 31030, which addresses travel risk management, ISO 31031 underscores that duty of care extends beyond a mere ethical obligation: it is critical to organizational liability as well as the broader enterprise security risk management (ESRM) strategy.
Key Components of ISO 31031
By outlining essential components for planning, assessment, and response, the new standard ensures that safety, security, and educational value remain at the forefront of every trip for young people.
Scope and applicability. ISO 31031 encompasses a comprehensive range of travel scenarios, from brief local excursions to extended international projects. Its provisions are relevant to a variety of objectives, such as education, research, training, and recreation, and apply to a diverse spectrum of organizations. These include educational institutions, residential care providers, tutorial centers, youth and faith-based groups, and sports and arts clubs, as well as both commercial and noncommercial travel facilitators and service providers.
Risk management framework. The standard promotes the integration of a systematic risk management framework within an organization’s overall governance and decision-making structures. It prescribes ongoing procedures for the identification, assessment, and mitigation of travel-related risks, ensuring that risk management is embedded as a continuous organizational practice rather than a singular event.
Safety and security. ISO 31031 delineates explicit measures to safeguard the safety and security of young travelers. The standard addresses the unique vulnerabilities encountered by students during travel and provides detailed guidance on protective strategies and protocols tailored to their needs. Those vulnerabilities include insufficient supervision, security threats and local hazards, and poor communication and coordination, according to the standard.
Emergency response planning. The standard articulates best practices for the formulation and implementation of emergency response plans. This includes ensuring that all relevant stakeholders are adequately prepared for potential emergencies and are fully informed of their specific roles and responsibilities in a crisis situation.
Roles, responsibilities, and accountability. ISO 31031 emphasizes the definition of clear roles, responsibilities, and lines of accountability for all individuals involved in planning and executing school trips. This includes trip leaders, supervisory staff, support personnel, and participants to ensure effective coordination and oversight throughout the trip.
With respect to academic institutions and youth organizations, the importance of travel risk management cannot be overstated. This standard should profoundly influence organizational practices, to ensure that robust measures are in place to prevent, manage, and respond to incidents during youth travel. Institutions that implement ISO 31031 are better positioned to demonstrate due diligence and proactive risk management, thereby reducing legal exposure and increasing their capacity for effective emergency response. In some cases, integrating this guidance may present certain operational challenges. However, the resulting benefits—improved safety, heightened security, regulatory compliance, institutional resilience, and increased stakeholder confidence—far outweigh any initial complexities.
Viktor Panchak, CPP, is a senior corporate security expert and consultant who now works as security director and partner at International SOS. He has more than 27 years of successful career experience in both public and private security, consultancy, and business administration and commercial management. Panchak is a graduate of Georgetown University in Washington D.C., USA, and the first Ukrainian professional to receive the highest global security certification, CPP.
