U.S. Agency to Screen Exchange Student Hosts

To help protect thousands of foreign exchange students, many living away from home for the first time, the State Department proposed rules that would screen host families for sex offenders.

Many high school students who come to the United States each year are 17 or 18, but some are as young as 15, officials said. The proposals follow several cases where hosts sexually abused foreign students.

“The safety and security of these participants are of paramount importance to the department,” officials said in a statement. Under the new policy, all adults in a host family would be vetted through sex offender registries.