State Dept. Proposes Safety Measures for Exchange Students

A proposal by the U.S. Department of State to increase screening requirements for adults who interact with foreign youths in high school student-exchange programs isn’t strict enough, some child advocates said last week.

The proposed amendments for high school exchange programs, which bring about 25,000 secondary school students to the United States each year, are intended to help prevent sexual abuse.

They call for criminal-background checks for staff members and program volunteers. Program sponsors would also have to run the names of all adults in host-family households through the state sex-offender registries, and report allegations of sexual misconduct both to the State Department and...