A new app called Script allows schools to manage the entire process of field trip planning including creating the forms, and collecting signatures and digital payments from parents, without any actual paperwork. Script lets parents digitally sign all permission slips with their finger through an app, and then pay for the activity right from their phone. School administrators, teachers, and parents all benefit from this modern, streamlined way of handling permission forms for activities and field trips. This app eliminates the risk of a form getting lost by the time the child returns home, as well as the concern that arises from sending cash back to school with the child (often times very young children).
Once schools sign up, they can place the student roster and all information pertaining to each student into the system. Teachers then use the app to create a new activity which gets sent to the school administrator for approval, and then the activity gets pushed to the appropriate parents for the designated class automatically once the administrator approves it. Script is available online as a web application as well as an app on iPhones and Androids. It is still in the startup stages of use, only about 15 schools in Florida right now are connected and utilizing its technology, but to me it seems like this may catch on very quickly.