Principals

Your role as a gatekeeper for the program is critical.

Visa law states that a sponsoring group, like Rotary, may place up to 5 students in a school. After 5 students, the organization would have to apply to the state department for an override.

Please note that this is not a limit on the number of international students allowed at the school (it is a limit on the organization placing the students ... Other programs such as Sister Cities, AFS, or EF have their own 5-student limit).

Should paperwork need to be done in order to accommodate the student at your school, we will work hard to cooperate and make it happen.

Typically, our YEOs from a local club will reach out to you in January or so to obtain a school guarantee, which is needed for us to coordinate with foreign districts in order to make an exchange of one of our students for a foreign student. We then get the student's information in Feb-April, and will then deliver the information to the school.

We also try and reach out to the school nurse to ensure all vaccinations are up to date before the student arrives in the US, and to coordinate any other admission needs.

As an all volunteer organization, we will by necessity focus on the main tasks needed to ensure the exchange has all its fundamental parts (host families, paperwork, communication between student and school, etc), but we also have as goals to reach out to guidance counselors and foreign language teachers to see if there are materials we can provide to them to help them open opportunities for their students. We hope to maintain a pattern of communication with them over the course of the year so that there is no additional burden, but simply chances for them to enhance their communication with and support for their students.