# A field trip permission form tracker in SharePoint

> For the full documentation index, see https://250highstreet.com/llms.txt

> Paper permission slips go missing. Collect parent consent in a Microsoft Form, keep a roster, and see which students still have no answer.

Put the permission slip in a Microsoft Form and send each answer to a SharePoint list, then keep a second list of every student on the trip so you can see who has not answered. The form needs only the student's first name (plus last initial when two students share one), Yes or No, and a guardian contact; leave medical details to your school's process.

A Power Automate flow marks each student on the roster when an answer arrives, and one roster view shows the students who are still waiting. A list cannot show a row that does not exist, so a missing answer needs a roster to compare against. Exact names may differ on your screen.

## Why paper slips go missing

A paper slip travels a long way. It goes into a backpack, onto a kitchen table, back into a backpack, and onto a teacher's desk. Along the way it gets folded, forgotten or lost. The day before the trip, someone counts the slips and finds some are missing. No one can tell if the parent said no, said yes and the slip was lost, or never saw it.

Four things go wrong:

- The slip has no second copy. If it is lost, the answer is lost.
- No one has a single list of who has answered. Slips sit in piles.
- A "yes" and a "no" look the same in a pile until someone reads each one.
- The count is done late, by whoever has time.

## What you are building

You will build three things:

- One Microsoft Form that a parent or guardian fills in on a phone.
- One list called "Trip responses" that holds each answer.
- One list called "Trip roster" that holds every student going on the trip, with a status of Waiting, Yes or No.

A Power Automate flow connects them. When a parent submits the form, the flow saves the answer and updates the student's status on the roster.

If you have not yet connected a form to a list, the first part is covered in "[Save Microsoft Forms answers to a SharePoint list](/guides/microsoft-forms-to-sharepoint-list/)". This guide does not repeat those steps. It shows what to change for permission slips.

## Privacy first

This list holds information about children. Plan it before you build it.

1.  Ask your school's policy. Rules on where student data may be kept differ from school to school. Ask your school office or your IT admin before you start, and follow what they say.
2.  Collect the least you can. One way to start is a first name, a Yes or No, and one way to reach the guardian. Do not collect medical details, home addresses or birth dates in this form.
3.  Keep the lists on a site that only the trip staff can open. Switching views shows every row to anyone with access, so limits come from permissions. See "[Let each person see only their own items in a SharePoint list](/guides/people-see-only-their-own-items-sharepoint-list/)" and "[Keep one column private (like pay or notes) in a shared list](/guides/hide-a-column-from-some-people-sharepoint-list/)".
4.  FERPA is a federal law that gives parents rights over their children's education records, including some control over who sees personal details from them. The U.S. Department of Education explains it at [https://studentprivacy.ed.gov/faq/what-ferpa](https://studentprivacy.ed.gov/faq/what-ferpa). Whether it covers this form is a question for your school's counsel. This guide does not make a school FERPA compliant.
5.  Decide when to delete. When the trip is over, ask your school how long to keep the answers, and remove them on that day.

## Step 1. Build the form

Create the form as described in the Microsoft help page on sending a form and collecting responses. Add these questions:

1.  Student first name (Text). If two students in the class share a first name, ask for the first name and last initial, such as "Sam R".
2.  Do you give permission? (Choice with two options: "1 Yes" and "2 No").
3.  Guardian phone or email (Text).
4.  Trip name (Text), or leave this off if you make one form per trip.

The two choices use the same words as the Choice column you will make in the list, with the number first. This keeps the words identical in the form and in the list, so the flow does not fail on a mismatch. Parents will see the numbers. A short line in the question, such as "Choose 1 Yes or 2 No", helps.

## Step 2. Choose who can respond

Microsoft's help page on adjusting form settings lists three choices under "Who can fill out this form":

- Anyone can respond. Anyone inside or outside of your organization can submit.
- Only people in my organization can respond. Microsoft says the two settings "Record name" and "One response per person" sit under this choice.
- Specific people in my organization can respond.

Microsoft also says the organization-only choices work with Office 365 Education and Microsoft 365 Apps for business accounts, and that you sign in with a work or school account to reach them. Parents may not have accounts in your organization. If they do not, you need "Anyone can respond". In that case you cannot rely on "Record name" or "One response per person", because those settings are tied to the organization-only choice. So ask for the student's name inside the form, as in Step 1, and expect that a parent might submit twice. Step 5 shows how to handle that. Check with your admin which choice fits your school.

To send the form, Microsoft's help page says to open the form, select "Collect responses", and choose a method such as a link, an invitation, a QR code or an embed code. A QR code can go on the same paper letter you already send home, so the paper becomes the invitation and not the record.

## Step 3. Create the two lists

Create a list named "Trip responses". Microsoft's pages give the general method for creating a list. Use these columns:

- Title (Single line of text). Rename it to "Student first name".
- Consent (Choice). Add the choices "1 Yes" and "2 No".
- Trip name (Single line of text), if you use one form for more than one trip.
- Guardian contact (Single line of text).

Create a second list named "Trip roster". Use these columns:

- Title (Single line of text). Rename it to "Student first name". Type the name exactly as parents will type it in the form.
- Consent status (Choice). Add the choices "1 Waiting", "2 Yes" and "3 No". Set the default to "1 Waiting".
- Class (Single line of text), if you run more than one class.

Add every student on the trip to the roster before you send the form. This is the key step. The roster is the list of who you expect to hear from.

## Step 4. Build the flow

Build the flow in Power Automate with the steps in "[Save Microsoft Forms answers to a SharePoint list](/guides/microsoft-forms-to-sharepoint-list/)". That means the trigger "When a new response is submitted", then "Get response details", then the SharePoint action "Create item" that saves the answer into "Trip responses". Microsoft's Forms connector page says the trigger gives a Response Id, and that you use it with "Get response details" to fetch the answers. If your form is a group form, it does not show in the drop-down list. Microsoft says to paste the part after "FormId=" from the address bar of the edit page into the Form Id field.

Then add steps that update the roster:

1.  Add the SharePoint action "Get items". Pick the "Trip roster" list. Microsoft's connector page describes it as "Gets items from a SharePoint list."
2.  In "Filter Query", enter a filter that matches the student name from the form. Microsoft's connector page describes this field as an OData filter. The filter looks like Title eq 'name', where name is the student first name from "Get response details". Put the name from dynamic content between the single quotes.
3.  Open the advanced options of "Get items". Microsoft says the default item limit is 100. Set Top Count above your roster size, up to 5,000. Here the filter returns one row, but set the values anyway so the action behaves the same on a bigger roster.
4.  Add a Condition. If the answer to the permission question equals "1 Yes", go to the Yes branch. Otherwise go to the No branch.
5.  In each branch, add the SharePoint action "Update item". Pick the "Trip roster" list. Microsoft's connector page describes it as "Updates an item in a SharePoint list." In the Yes branch, set Consent status to "2 Yes". In the No branch, set it to "3 No". Power Automate wraps these steps in an "Apply to each" loop because "Get items" returns a list. That is normal.

Save the flow and test it with one answer under a made-up student name. Delete the test rows afterward.

## Step 5. See who has not answered

Here is the honest part. A list shows rows that exist. A student with no answer has no row in "Trip responses", so no filter on that list can show them. There is no filter that returns "rows that do not exist".

You have two ways to find the missing students. This guide uses the roster.

- The roster way. Every student is already a row in "Trip roster". The flow changes the status when an answer arrives. Students who have not answered are still at "1 Waiting". A view that shows only "1 Waiting" is your missing list.
- The lookup way. A lookup column can link a response to a roster row. Microsoft's help page on lookup columns says the source column can be Single line of text, Number, Date and Time, or Lookup (single value). It says lookup columns should be created and used within the same site. A lookup shows the link from a response to a student. The page does not say how to show roster rows that have no linked response, so do not count on a lookup alone for the missing list.

To build the "Waiting" view on the roster:

1.  Open the "Trip roster" list.
2.  Create a new view named "Waiting".
3.  Filter it to show rows where Consent status equals "1 Waiting".
4.  Sort by Class, then by Title.

Open "Edit current view", then "Filters". A plain "equals" filter is enough.

A second view, "No", shows rows where Consent status equals "3 No". Staff need this list on trip day so they know who stays behind.

When a parent submits twice, the flow runs twice. The roster keeps the status from the latest answer. If a parent changes a "Yes" to a "No", the last answer wins. If you need an audit of every answer, "Trip responses" keeps each one as its own row.

## Step 6. Chase the missing answers

Open the "Waiting" view each morning in the days before the trip. For each student, send the form link again by the method your school already uses. After a parent answers, the student leaves the view on its own. One way to start is to check the view at the same time each day, so it becomes a habit. To send a message when a due date is near, see "[Send a reminder before a due date in a SharePoint list](/guides/send-reminder-before-due-date/)". Keep reminders to the staff, not to parents, until your school agrees on how parents should be contacted.

## What to avoid

- Do not collect more than you need. No medical notes, home addresses or photos in this form. Ask your school how those are handled.
- Do not treat a view as a lock. Anyone who can open the list can switch views.
- Do not let the form and the list use different words. The form says "1 Yes" and the list says "1 Yes". If they differ, the flow can fail or leave the field empty.
- Do not skip the roster. Without it, you cannot tell who is missing.
- Do not match on first name alone when two students share a name. Use first name and last initial in both the form and the roster.
- Do not keep the data forever. Ask your school how long to keep it, then delete it.
- Do not count on one person's flow. The flow runs under the account that built it. Ask your admin who should own it.

## Honest limits

This tracker records what a parent typed. It does not prove who the parent is. If your school needs a signature on file, ask your school what counts. A Microsoft Form answer may not meet that rule.

The flow matches names as text. A typo in the form means no roster row is found, and that student stays at "1 Waiting" even though the parent answered. Check the "Trip responses" list for names that do not match the roster. Names with an apostrophe, such as O'Brien, can break a filter written with single quotes. Test one such name before you rely on the flow.

Also note that the Microsoft Forms connector page says it only works with organizational accounts, and lists a limit of 300 calls per connection every 60 seconds. A single class will not come close. Check with your admin about what your account includes.

## When to get help

You can build all of this yourself in Microsoft 365. If you would rather have it built and tested for your team, I do that. A tracker like this is a fixed price: \$5,000 for one, built in 2 weeks. See "[What a SharePoint tracker costs to build](/guides/what-a-sharepoint-tracker-costs/)". Bring one example of the problem to a free call.

I am Al Davies. I run 250 High Street LLC and build SharePoint trackers and Power Automate flows for operations teams. I work remotely. The first call is free, and I will not try to sell you anything.

See trackers I built: [Tools I built](/portfolio/)

## FAQ

### What fields does a field trip permission form need?

This guide uses the student's first name (plus last initial when two share one), a Yes or No choice, a guardian phone or email, and the trip name. Leave medical details and addresses to your school's process.

### Is it safe to keep student information in a SharePoint list?

It depends on how you set it up and on your school's rules. Keep the information to a minimum, limit who can open the site, and ask your school's policy before you start. A view only hides rows or columns from the screen. It is not security.

### Can SharePoint show me the students who have not answered?

Not from the responses list alone, because a missing answer is not a row. Keep a roster list with every student, mark each one when an answer arrives, and filter the roster for "1 Waiting".

### Can I limit the form to one answer per parent?

Microsoft's help page places "One response per person" under the choice for people in your organization. If parents are outside your organization, the setting may not be available, so ask for the student's name in the form.

### Does FERPA apply to a permission form?

FERPA is a federal law that gives parents rights over their children's education records. Whether it covers your form is for your school's counsel to say.

## Sources

- [Microsoft Support, Adjust your form or quiz settings in Microsoft Forms (who can respond, Record name, One response per person)](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/forms/adjust-your-form-or-quiz-settings-in-microsoft-forms)
- [Microsoft Support, Send a form and collect responses (sharing methods, who can respond)](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/forms/send-a-form-and-collect-responses)
- [Microsoft Support, Create list relationships by using lookup columns](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/lists/data-and-lists/create-list-relationships-by-using-lookup-columns)
- [Microsoft Learn, Microsoft Forms connector reference (trigger, "Get response details", limits)](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/connectors/microsoftforms/)
- [Microsoft Learn, SharePoint connector reference ("Get items", "Create item", "Update item")](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/connectors/sharepointonline/)
- [U.S. Department of Education, What is FERPA](https://studentprivacy.ed.gov/faq/what-ferpa)

## Related guides

- [Power Automate 403 Forbidden on a SharePoint action: what to check](/guides/power-automate-403-forbidden-sharepoint-connection/)
- [Edit in grid view is missing or greyed out in a SharePoint list](/guides/sharepoint-list-edit-in-grid-view-missing/)
- [Power Automate condition to check if a field is empty](/guides/power-automate-condition-field-empty/)
- [Tutoring schedule and attendance in SharePoint](/guides/tutoring-schedule-attendance-sharepoint/)

Source: https://250highstreet.com/guides/field-trip-permission-forms-tracker/