nCa Report
It is the dream of many teenagers to go to the United States as an exchange student. For some it can turn into a nightmare.
The cost of sending an exchange student to the USA for a school year is approximately USD 12000-15000. There are also additional expenses.
Unless there are grants or scholarships available, an average family in Central Asia needs to save for several years to send their child as exchange student to the USA. They cut on food and clothing, comforts and entertainment and even then may have to borrow from the relatives to scrape together the amount.
In theory, the experience of a year of education in the USA, and living with a host family during that period, should be momentous in the life of a teenager.
However, the reality in many cases is quite a disaster. There are flaws in the system.
Generally, when a student is sure they want to travel to the USA as an exchange student, the first step is to contact a local chapter or representative of the placement agency.
Be very careful if it is International Student Exchange (ISE) or International Student Exchange Programs (ASSE) because their record is rather questionable. The selection of a reliable and responsible placement service is very important.
There would be a number of things such as the selection of the school, the host family, the details of the living arrangements, the travel and insurance, etc.
There would be the assurances that while the student is in the USA, any complaints or problems would be resolved within half an hour. — Please don’t believe it even for a minute.
There are many documented cases to show that once the student has entered the system, there is almost nothing they or their parents can do to correct a situation gone wrong.
If you have raised your child to be respectful to the adults and trust them, you have done a great job. However, this could be a vulnerability in certain situations while staying in the USA as exchange student.
Please double check, even triple check, everything the placement agency tells you.
There are many flaws in the system. One of them is that the students can be placed in the household of a single adult. For a child raised in a traditional family in Central Asia, this is already a red flag.
The people running the exchange student system need to understand that the child is traveling to the USA for education, not for the reprogramming of their family and moral values.
The Department of State is supposed to be authority to resolve any issues faced by the exchange students. There are plenty of cases that the State does nothing of the sort.
There is no reliable system of screening the host families before they are permitted to take the exchange students. The result is that in many cases the convicted sex offenders get to be the host parent of a vulnerable child.
There have been the cases of sexual harassment, assault and even rape by a host parent.
In cases that have been documented, when an exchange student reported to the placement service that they have been raped, the service did not report the offending host parent to the authorities. This amounts to being complicit by not reporting a crime.
According to the terms, the exchange student should get a separate room of their own. However, sometimes they get a rat-infested and cockroach-infested basement. In one case, a cockroach had to be removed surgically from the ear of the child.
In some cases, the host parent does not allow the student to contact their family back home.
In short, if anything can go wrong, it probably will. And, the child or their family back home can do almost nothing to correct the situation.
The system is not geared in favour of the child. It is not even neutral. The system tilts in favour of the placement service.
Taking the complaint to the Department of State is like shouting in the wilderness. For all practical purposes, no one responds, no one intervenes to redress the grievances.
As the parents of the exchange student, you have the right insist that the host family chosen for your child should have the moral and family values that are compatible with your own.
You should also insist that the host parents should not have any criminal record.
There should be clear assurance that no one would shout at or beat your child under whatsoever pretext.
There should be the guarantee that your child will get three square meals a day, for which you are paying. The child also should have free access to the appliances such as washing machine, hair dryer, the kitchen, etc.
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We recommend that when a family decides to send their child to the USA as exchange student, the first thing they should do is to contact the CSFES (Committee for Safety of Foreign Exchange Students).
Ms. Danielle J. Grijalva is its founder and Director.
We can say with 100% confidence that you can trust CSFES when it comes to any questions and issues related to your child’s travel and stay in the USA.
Their contact details:
Committee for Safety of Foreign Exchange Students (CSFES)
660 Joshua Tree Street, Imperial, CA 92251
Phone – +1.760.583.9593
Email – DGrijalva@csfes.org
Website – http://www.csfes.org/
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Tips for Parents – When searching for an organization
(from CSFES website)
CSFES is receiving requests from parents to recommend suitable student exchange organizations. While CSFES is not in the position to make such referrals, we offer the following when making this very important decision:
Fingerprint Background Checks:
Ask specifically if the student exchange organization conducts fingerprint background checks. If the answer is no, search for another company.
In Case of an Emergency:
Check how well the student exchange organization responds to emergencies, especially of an evening, weekends and holidays. Find out the emergency telephone number in which to call. Then call the telephone number. The response will tell you if this is a responsible organization.
Reviewing Student Profiles:
When visiting the exchange organization’s website, what controls are in place to prevent easy access to the student’s profile? Is personal information easily accessible complete with the student’s photo? Is this the method in which you would like for your son or daughter to be placed by the student exchange organization?
There is an increase in sexual predators targeting children through the Internet, therefore, this is a vital concern to CSFES.
Host Family Information:
In the event you have progressed to receiving your son or daughter’s prospective Host Family information packet from the student exchange organization:
Check to see that this family’s interests are similar to your son or daughters.
If your child has allergies or asthma; is he/she being placed in a home with animals or those who smoke?
Be very concerned if prior to your son or daughter’s departure, you are notified by the student exchange organization that there has been a sudden change with the Host Family selected for your child. If you are told the Host Family is no longer the same “due to a divorce or unforeseen circumstances,” etc., this is a major concern to CSFES.
You will be told that a Welcome Family will instead await your son or daughter. It has been our experience that this gives cause for your child to potentially be bounced around among Welcome Families many times prior to a “permanent” family being secured. Does the organization pre-screen welcome families, including fingerprint background checks?
As per the United States Department of State regulations, Section 62.25 (d)(3) “Ensure that no organizational representative act as both host family and area supervisor for any student participant whom that organizational representative may host.”
Your son or daughter should not be placed in a home where his/her host mother or father is also the organization’s supervisor, area representative or regional director. This provides no neutrality in the event your son or daughter has concerns or an emergency. /// nCa, 14 June 2024
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There is an Internet forum where the exchange students and their parents have shared their experience. It is an eye-opener.
The forum is in the German language. We are producing here the translation of the opening post in the thread.
USA High School Year/ what I would have liked to have known before booking
Exchange Student Forum Before the Year Abroad
Sunny78September 21, 2023 at 7:011 am
Hello everyone,
If you are a parent and are looking for independent information, away from the glossy brochures of the organizations, you are in a better place here.
I would like to prepare you a little better for the unpleasant things in the USA that can happen and that of course no organization addresses.
These are all things that have either happened very recently and that do not affect a specific organization, but all of them, although not every point applies to every organization.
So, here we go:
– in the event of “misbehavior”, some organizations and also host parents steal the cell phone – if the child refuses, they are threatened with expulsion and a return flight the next day and the visa is revoked. We are not talking about a few hours, but a week or even complete theft until the end of the program. (At least one US agency has this in its rules)
-If there are “problems”, some organizations prevent the teenagers from talking to others. Not with teachers, not with other students. If they do, this can be punished as a rule violation and they face immediate expulsion. They are denied any opportunity to pour out their hearts.
-Many US families have a, let’s say, strange kind of need, in what way and how often a European teenager has to show gratitude. And this over and over again. Almost a submissive and acquiescent attitude is expected
-The hygienic requirements and expectations of a host family home do not always correspond to those in Germany. So if you have a stomach ache about a placement because of the photos: definitely turn it down!
-European teenagers are very often treated and viewed as children there. Nobody is interested in their opinion and view, and their self-confidence often makes them seem ungrateful and disrespectful to some host families. Simply because they are normal teenagers.
-the child has stated that they are vegetarian or vegan? A placement does not have to take this into account and does not have to explain why the student was selected anyway.
-health restrictions are not always taken into account in the houses, e.g. in the case of pneumological restrictions in relation to nicotine and/or allergies to animal hair.
-there is no standard as to what a house must look like, how a family must be financially positioned, so it is also difficult to enforce financial claims later.
-our children may be directly confronted with homophobia, racism and sexism within the family and not from the perspective of the victim.
-existence of: psychological pressure, absolute ban on contact with friends and parents, accusations by LC and host families that the exchange students are lying and manipulative
-the actual contact persons for our children are often friends with the host families and are therefore often not neutral in what is happening.
-even in the case of massive problems, many organizations do not allow you to change families, although this is often presented completely differently beforehand (and I am not talking about someone not being accepted into a sports group)
-if the host family says that they no longer want the student, things can happen quickly: within often just 30 minutes and without warning, our children have to pack all their things, cannot say goodbye to anyone and often go to the local coordinators (although according to the State Department, this is not even allowed in the USA). There, the distance created may mean that the children cannot attend school for several days or weeks. They are threatened with expulsion from school.
Never let your children sign documents that they do not fully understand (this is often attempted, but is then considered an admission of guilt and is therefore considered a violation of the rules and can result in expulsion)
These are not just my own experiences. Several parents have confirmed, shocked after their experiences, that they approached the “year abroad” project too naively, myself included, and we regret not having informed ourselves better.
This is meant to be a small warning shot…most people will think that these are isolated cases. On the one hand, that is not true, although of course many students still have a fantastic year.
-one last piece of advice: if you don’t have it yet, get legal protection insurance, just to be on the safe side
I wish all families all the best, take care of yourselves and your children.
The forum is accessible at this link: https://forum.schueleraustausch.de/t/usa-high-school-jahr-was-ich-gerne-vor-der-buchung-gewusst-haette/31725
If you have any questions, you can join the forum and participate in the conversation.
There are many informative comments in the forum. For example, someone wrote:
It can happen that a member of the host family has a criminal record, has been in prison, weapons are lying around openly, it is dirty, your child is not allowed to have social contacts, there is not enough to eat, your child has to submissively run the entire household and look after several small children – in addition to or instead of school. Some host families are made to believe that the babysitter or cleaning lady will also come into the house with the host child, and contrary to our belief, they often receive money for taking in a host child, sometimes openly advertised on Facebook – so the families should not always be the main blame. Completely different expectations are created – especially in the customer recruitment phase!
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The idea is not to dissuade or discourage the prospective exchange students or their parents. However, you must never forget that for some of the placement agencies, an exchange student is just a transaction; a profitable transaction. And, this transaction is completed as soon as the student lands in the USA. /// nCa, 14 June 2024