By Anna Schecter
Rock Center
The State Department is “in denial” about how many high school foreign exchange students are sexually abused by their American host parents, according to critics interviewed as part of an NBC News probe.
“So many kids, more than you would think have really suffered horrible trauma, they’ve suffered abuse, they’ve been mistreated,” said Jessica Vaughan, Director of Policy at the Washington-based research organization, Center for Immigration Studies.
Every year more than 25,000 high school students are granted visas to spend an academic school year in America. Their parents can pay more than $10,000 to organizations approved by the State Department to place their children with host families.
Vaughan, who has examined exchange programs for years, says the lack of oversight and resources at the Department makes it possible for sexual predators to take advantage of the system and become host parents to foreign exchange students.
“Through their mismanagement of the program, they essentially are looking the other way. They’re in denial about how much of it actually goes on,” Vaughan said. “I’m ashamed as an American that the government agency that’s responsible for bringing them over under the auspices of [being] about cross-cultural understanding is exercising only token oversight to protect these kids.”
NBC News spent six months investigating cases of sexual abuse or harassment of high school foreign exchange students, including a 2005 case in which a student went to live with a sexual predator after another student had sounded warnings the year before.
Attorney Irwin Zalkin represented four victims in that case.
“You have thousands and thousands of kids from around the world that want to come to the United States. I mean, who doesn't want come here and have a chance to experience this country? The problem is we don't have enough homes and families to place these kids with or the ability to vet these homes and vet those host families,” he said.
The State Department defends the high school exchange program, and maintains that the vast majority of the 200,000 students who have come to America over the past decade have had an overwhelmingly positive experience.
"These kids have an enormously gratifying, rich, fantastic American experience that lasts with them for a lifetime,” said State Department Spokesperson Toria Nuland.
State Department staffers told NBC News that a fraction of one percent of high school foreign exchange students reported sexual harassment or abuse by a host parent for the 2010-2011 academic school year. The Department said it did not have such data in a central log of complaints until the fall of 2009.
Indeed, cases of sexual abuse are rare, but they happen.
Rock Center found more than 60 cases of alleged sexual abuse or harassment by a host parent have been reported in local news reports around the country in the last decade, a third of them resulting in convictions.
"Those are just the cases that have been reported, the rest just go home," said Vaughan, who said she believes sex abuse of exchange students is grossly underreported because the students are especially vulnerable.
“They don’t speak the language or know the culture or know their rights,” she said.
Over the course of the investigation, Rock Center learned of other cases of neglect and abuse that were not sexual in nature.
Arkansas State Senator Sue Madison (D-7th District) said she learned of multiple instances of poor treatment or abuse of students. Among them, a case of evangelical Christian host parents who verbally harassed a student, forced her to attend church services and told her she would go to hell because she wasn’t saved. In another case, a couple hosted a student to use the student as free childcare, and in another, a student was forced to work long hours on a chicken farm.
"I think the State Department is not doing nearly enough to oversee these programs," said Madison, who pushed a bill through the state legislature to give the state the power to oversee exchange organizations that place the students with host families.
Minnesota also passed a bill to take on oversight of the high school foreign exchange program after state government officials said they could not get through to the State Department to address problems with host families.
Nuland said that when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took office in 2009, she had heard there were problems in the exchange program.
Then in the summer of 2009, a story hit the press about a program in Scranton, Pennsylvania where high school exchange students were subjected to malnutrition and unsanitary living conditions.
Clinton ordered a review of all youth exchange programs by the State Department’s Inspector General.
His resulting report gave a scathing review, citing “insufficient oversight of the youth exchange programs at all levels.”
It found that communication among some staff “borders of unprofessional,” there was a “lack of human and financial resources,” and an “erroneous assumption” that the exchange organizations monitored themselves.
Nuland said that in response, Clinton said, “I want this fixed.”
The Department dropped a number of organizations that previously were approved to place students with families and implemented new regulations meant to more thoroughly check out host families.
"We do training for the staff, we work with them on implementing the regulations. We insist that they document now these home visits, these background checks…there is a 24/7 hotline the students can call if they encounter a problem with the host family,” Nuland said.
Background checks on host families have been required by U.S law since 2005.
Nuland said the State Department also increased the number of staff responsible for oversight of the organizations that place the 25,000 students who come to the U.S. every year. There are currently about sixty people in the office responsible for managing the program. Nuland said Clinton “increased that staff by about 25% in the last two years.”
A portion of those sixty people are in charge of compliance—making sure host families are visited and background checks are done.
Despite reforms, just this past Christmas a 16-year-old boy from Germany says he did not know what to do after he was allegedly sexually abused by his host father and did not know what to do. In an interview to be broadcast tonight on Rock Center, he said he did not know about the State Department’s 24/7 hotline.
His mother said when she spoke to the local coordinator by phone and asked her what she should do, the coordinator told her, “It’s up to you.” She quickly flew to the U.S. on her own dime to retrieve her son at her own expense. Three months later she and her son flew back to the U.S., again at their own expense, to file a police report.
Nuland said the State Department will look into the case. She said the Department and Clinton are committed to making the experience of studying abroad a safe and happy one for any foreign student.
“We have to have zero tolerance for any of these cases, even one child abused is one too many. And it is our job to fix this and we will,” she said.
“To the degree that which we still have cases reported we are not there yet. Are the reforms that we've put in place sufficient? I think we need to watch that over the next couple of months and see where it goes. But we are absolutely committed to continuing to tighten these regulations and improve this program until we get to zero,” Nuland said.
Editor's Note: Click here to watch Kate Snow's full report, Culture Shock, which aired on Rock Center with Brian Williams.
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How could these young students be placed in dirty and run-down mobile homes in the middle of nowhere with host parents who clearly were not investigated? What sort of impression could these foreign students possibly have of the United States when they are treated so horribly? Less than 1% of students were sexually abused? OK. I guess that's acceptable...are you crazy???
So you think students shouldn't have the opportunity to study abroad because other kids had unfortunate experiences? Think about the countless number of people that studying abroad helps. Should big cities like LA stop allowing people to move there since people get killed there daily????.... are you crazy????
I was a home stay parent for a foreign exchange student with the ISE program. Not once did anyone visit my home to see if it was appropriate for a foreign student. Neither the local high school teacher working with the ISE coordinator or the ISE coordinator from a community 70 minutes away came to view the living conditions of my home. I talked briefly with the high school teacher in person and several times with the ISE coordinator on the phone. I believe that Ms. Vaughn's impression that people are vigourously trained to be coordinators for these programs tells me she really has no idea what goes on. The lack of contact by the ISE program prompted me to call the student's parents several times to talk with them so they had an idea of who their daughter was living with for the summer and hopefully give them some peace of mind.
Even those most host families are good people and care about their exchange students, I don't believe the administration of the programs are as in-depth as they should be.
Did your ISE program initials stand for intercultural student experiences? That is the company that is in charge of my children's student exchange program
It should be mandatory these students are supplied with a trak phone for 911 use only with an instruction card in their language. As much money as these organizations make this is a small price to protect those they are trusted with.
I don't know where "As much money as these organizations make..." comes from. I have been a volunteer board member of an exchange program for almost 40 years and I will testify that most programs are not wealthy nor are their employees.
I think that it is just deplorable that more steps to ensure the safety of these students weren't taken until after so many reports of abuse were found. I was thinking of sending my two high school students to Spain next year with a student exchange program, now this information has me questioning whether this is a safe and sound idea as a parent. How do I know that their program has met with all the guidelines and hasn't been cited before?
I have had the pleasure of hosting 3 exchange students from 3 different countries along with many in my community. I was horrified watching your story and stunned to see YFU as one of the organizations. Two of my students came from there as did maybe 100 come from YFU to our town. My 3rd was AFS (American Field Service). I found my contact with the folks at AFS to be the best. Their constant concern for their kids was always there. The experience enriched all of us. My 2 children can look back and talk about the experience they had 25-30 years ago. Recently I found one student on Facebook. Great experience. Great sadness for the young people and their families.
I never miss Rock Center. Great show.
AS AN EXCHANGE STUDENT: DO NOT LET THIS SKEW YOUR VIEW OF STUDYING ABROAD. Yes, there are kids who have bad experiences, but there are THOUSANDS more who have life changing international abroad trips that form life-long relationships. This segment was SICKENINGLY biased and one-sided, and I am sad to think that there will be people out there who will now never consider hosting or sending their student abroad.
Studying abroad is the greatest thing that could ever happen to a high school student.
I have hosted 16 exchange students over 12 years. The exchange student organizations is only as good as the local representation. I also have been a local representative for 7 years and have had training with all 3 agencies I have been with. My house has also been inspected each year. I am afraid this segment is going to shun some possible host families away as this is the start of the placement season. Host families are so hard to find. With all 16 of my students, it has been a very rewarding experience and I have built life long relationships. I wish everyone could experience what I have. And most all of them have come back to visit so I think it was a great experience for them also.
I know that the report says the number of abuse cases is less than 1% but like any kind of abuse, in any situation, there could be countless cases going unreported because the victims are shamed and threatened into silence. I'm not saying there shouldn't be any kind of student exchange, but its like Nuland says, this needs to be a zero tolerance policy. Host families need to be properly looked into and approved before students are placed. And the consequences for failing to do so should be severe.
And students who do come forward with allegations of abuse need to be heard. Not hushed and swept under the rug by the exchange programs.
I am glad that this is being reported. Kate Snow's report focused on sexual abuse, but mistreatment of foreign students may not always take that form. I have been somewhat aware of problems for some time - there was a big problem with treatment of exchange students in the Phila. area not too long ago. But my first inkling was when I was in graduate school 25 years ago. There were also lots of foreign grad students on campus and I got to know some of them. There were two Asian girls I came to know, and the one who I knew better told us that the other one was being treated as almost a slave to her host family.
I hope that Ms. Snow does a sequel report. It is a serious issue and needs to be looked into and addressed. There may be concerns about families not wanting to send students abroad. I hope that doesn't happen, but we should do all we can to make sure it does turn out to be a positive experience.
The exact opposite, of what the State department told NBC News March 14 on the subject. What a country.
Startribune nation Mar 14 8 27 PM
Despite dozens of allegations of neglect and sexual abuse over the years, the U.S. State Department abandoned a plan to require FBI-based fingerprint searches for people hosting foreign high school exchange students, according to documents obtained by the Associated Press.
The State Department in recent years considered but dropped a plan to require FBI background checks similar to what are used by the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts because it wasn't "feasible," according to department documents.
The agency was taking a serious look at requiring the checks as far back as 2010 and identified a dozen private companies that are authorized to use the FBI's database, according to the documents. The State Department later settled on a pilot program with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, but that ended in March 2011 because Congress didn't reauthorize the program.
By not requiring the fingerprint checks, the government has sent the wrong message, especially at a time when cases of mistreatment and sexual abuse continue to surface, advocates said.
The Exchange Visitor Program brings close to 30,000 high school students to the United States each year. Foreign students live with a host family for a year and attend U.S. schools. It's supposed to be a learning experience for the students, but over the years, dozens of students have been abused, according to State Department records, advocates and court documents.
The agency received 43 allegations of sexual abuse since the beginning of the 2010-2011 school year, said State Department spokesman Mark Toner.
"From the State Department's point of view and the Secretary of State's point of view, even one child abused under these programs is one child too many. That is why we've undertaken a number of reforms to strengthen the program," Toner said in an e-mail.
In recent years, the agency has adopted several rules designed to safeguard students in the high school program, including requiring all sponsors to photograph the exterior of the house, the kitchen and student's bedroom.
Host families also must provide outside character references -- previously, family members and sponsors could be such references
I have an issue on how this was presented. Although it focused on ERDT Share, it painted with too broad a brush and tainted the others. Presently, Dept Of State requires photos, background checks for all over 14 for any individual who is involved with travel or overnight stays. No it isn't on the level of a NSA check. But it also involves the local volunteers with our groups with trained knowledge. AFS ( I'm a co-chair with my wife of a team ) do rely on our knowledge, training and sometimes intuition. She declined a family due to her observations of family interactions during the interview. The family's suggested references (which was their pastor) asked us not to place a student there because of the father's behavior. ERDT placed a student there. We assumed the mantel of liaison for the student as we worried about her. We've been there as parents of 2 children who went overseas and hosted 20 something (I intentionally forget the number) students.
We are unpaid volunteers with AFS. Their local field people who are local are unpaid volunteers who believe in the organization. Yes, their paid staff are in regional centers and always available. But the volunteers are parents with experience with teenagers. We have been with two other groups who only had paid staff in the field and either over taxed with the number of students or didn't care. The students are afraid of being sent back if they have problems. Some of those undesired parents reinforce that belief for any small infraction. We do move students with problems due to family incompatibility. Usually, it is a student with a party mentality as we can't screen them as closely as we do the host family. The disclaimers left too many people to believe problems are far more common than what they really are.
The truth is relying on screening processes are not effective, it is a myth that is perpetuated by the background check industry. Consider the fact that in any year and any location, around 95% of sex crime convictions are given to people with NO PRIOR RECORD.
As usual, Americans react with an American mentality. We turn a rare problem like this into an "epidemic." Less than 1% of the over 25,000 exchange students are abused? That's a better average than American children, so there must be some kind of screening process in place.
Way to go, USA, for spreading more fear than truth. The website oncefallen has more facts about sex offenses and those who commit them. Let's look at this from a truth perspective.
I'm curious as to what the overall purpose of this story is. I'm hoping some people will see the story and decide to become a host family or volunteer with an exchange program. Over 29,000 students came last year. Almost all of them will be placed in a single hosting situation - only one exchange student in the home. That means that twenty-some thousand host families are needed. (By the way, single people can host regardless of whether or not they have kids of their own -- I can name a half-dozen single people that I personally know and who have hosted and been fabulous host parents.) In the end, the exchange programs have to rely on the goodness of people's hearts to host. (Host families are not paid.)
I am issuing a personal plea to everyone reading this to consider helping by hosting or being a volunteer with an exchange program. I have do both and consider it to the greatest thing I do. There are many resources on the web to find out more information. Hosting is not the "right" thing for every family, but many times people think they can't host because of reasons that really don't matter.
Remember that exchange programs are only as good as the people that host and work for them. In the end, it's really about the kids - what kind of experience do you want them to have and what impression of the USA do you want them to have?