BOSTON — Schools are being encouraged to apply for Big Yellow School Bus grants, which fund academic field trips during the school year.

“I encourage schools in and outside my district to look into this program and see if they qualify,” State Sen. Scott Brown recently told WickedLocal.com. “Field trips are an important part of education and teach important lessons about our history and environment.”

The program, initiated by the Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC) and funded in a partnership with the Bank of America Charitable Foundation, provides grants to help schools meet the transportation costs of educational field trips to cultural institutions and events.

PreK-12 schools are invited to apply for grants of $200 each to be used during the 2009-10 school year — grants provided by the Bank of America Charitable Foundation will be offered to schools with more than 50 percent low-income students.

In the first year of the program (the 2008-09 academic year), more than 57,000 of the state's students attended field trips funded in part by Big Yellow School Bus, visiting 175 nonprofit cultural organizations across the state.

To apply for the Big Yellow School Bus grant program, visit http://www.massculturalcouncil.org/applications/bigyellowapp.html.