P5508 Foreign Exchange Students

Foreign exchange students may enroll in Unified School District No. 259 subject to the rules and regulations established by the United States Information Agency. Regardless of the comprehensiveness of their program, foreign exchange students will not receive a high school diploma, but will receive a certificate of attendance. 

Administrative Implemental Procedures: 

1. Foreign exchange students are those students who have J-1 visas. 
2. Foreign exchange students must have attained the age of at least fifteen but not more than eighteen years and six months as of August 31 of the year in which enrollment is intended. 
3. In order to ensure proper contact between the foreign exchange program, the foreign exchange student, and the school, the foreign exchange program must have a representative residing within sixty miles of Wichita. 
4. The foreign exchange program representative will present to Student Records and Enrollment Services a completed School Acceptance Form. If the student is accepted, the appropriate high school registrar will enter the data into the student information system and assign the student to the school. The host family is expected to complete the district’s enrollment process providing copies of applicable forms such as health records and transcripts. 
5. Applications must be submitted to Student Records and Enrollment Services no later than July 31. Applications submitted after that date will not be considered. Acceptance of any foreign exchange student is subject to the provision that the foreign exchange student must be in attendance on the first day of school.  
6. The total number of foreign exchange students enrolled in any school shall not exceed one percent of the school’s total population as of the previous September official enrollment report. 
7. In order to fully participate in the exchange program, foreign exchange students must have proficiency in English. Those students who, after arriving in Wichita, are determined by the school to have insufficient English proficiency may be required to take the Student with the English Language Test for International Student (ELTiS). This test will be administered by a qualified person at the expense of the foreign exchange program. Those students scoring less than 222 (ELTiS standard score) will not continue in Unified School District No. 259. The time line for testing is at the discretion of the building principal. 
8. Foreign exchange students will be enrolled as full-time students. Included in their schedules will be at least two semesters of English at an appropriate level, two semesters of U.S. History, and one semester of Government. Enrollment in ESL (English as a Second Language) will not be permitted. 
9. Foreign exchange students may participate in commencement exercises at the discretion of the building principal. 

Administrative Responsibility Student Records and Enrollment Services 

Latest Revision Date: August 2015 

Previous Revision Date: March 2014 P5508 March 2006  

Updated administratively for alignment purposes: March 2021 

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