The American National Standards Institute (ANSI), as the U.S. member body to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), seeks comments on a new proposal for a new ISO standard focused on Managing risk for youth and school trips. ANSI requests stakeholder input by June 5, 2020.
COPOLCO, the ISO Policy Advisory Committee on Consumer Issues, and the Standards Council of Canada (SCC), submitted a proposal to ISO for a new ISO standard, which explains that it will provide guidance for managing risk for youth (in particular, minors due to their particular vulnerabilities) and school trips for both domestic and international travel.
According to the scope statement, the standard would encompass best practices to address typical risks for this sector such as behavioral breaches and carelessness of students, weather-related problems, requirements for those with special needs (such as travelers with disabilities), and technical elements such as mechanical failures of equipment. The standard will benefit both the travelers themselves and the organizations that serve them by covering:
Safety and security of groups of young people travelling (specifically but not limited to school groups)
Risk management for organizations such as school boards, tourist attractions, tour operators, service providers, and recreational activities, etc.
All interested U.S. parties are invited to review more details in the proposal, which features related existing work and relevant affected stakeholders.
Submit comments to Steven Cornish, ANSI senior director of international policy and strategy, at [email protected], by close of business on June 5, 2020. Based on the input received from US stakeholders, a recommended ANSI position and any comments will be developed and presented to the ANSI ISO Council (AIC) for approval, before the ISO voting deadline of July 11, 2020.
ANSI has published an explanatory information document outlining the process used to develop U.S. positions on issues and activities under consideration by ISO and IEC.