What is required of a host family?

Host families provide the student with room and board, and are expected to treat their student as a member of a family, not as a guest. Students cover their own travel costs, health insurance, school expenses, cell phone, and spending money. EF and the U.S. Department of State also designate certain requirements of all host families. For example, host parents should be at least 25 years of age or older, pass a background check and have a stable and suitable household. Let us know if you are interested and we will help you determine if your family meets our program requirements!

Does EF place students with single people, same-sex couples, retirees, empty nesters or families without school aged children?

Yes! There is no 'typical' host family. Our families represent the diversity of American culture, and we encourage families of all shapes and sizes to host. Some families have young or teenage children, while others may be empty-nesters or newlyweds. We've had single people, same-sex couples, and grandparents all be wonderful hosts.

Are host families paid?

Host families are not paid. According the U.S. Department of State, host families cannot receive financial gain from their participation in a student exchange program. This rule is designed to ensure that host families are participating in the program for the right reasons. However, in recognition of their role as citizen ambassadors, host families may be eligible to receive a charitable tax deduction on their tax return.

Where do students come from?

EF exchange students come from 15 countries across Europe, Asia and South America. They hail from a diverse set of communities and backgrounds which help to offer an interesting breadth of students to choose from.

Can I select the student I want to bring into my home?

Yes, our exchange coordinators and full-time staff will work with you to find a great student match. We have spent more than 40 years matching students to their American host families and high schools. If you have an idea of what type of student would fit best in your family, let's talk about it!

How long will the student be with my family?

EF exchange students come to the U.S. for either one semester or one school year.

What if it doesn't work out?

We are committed to making sure that our exchange students and host families have a great experience. If problems ever arise, you can rely on your local exchange coordinator, regional coordinator, and full-time EF staff to be there for you. In the rare case that we can't all resolve the issue together, we will find the student a new home.

Our Commitment to Your Privacy

Welcome to the efexchangeyear.org website (the "Website"). The terms "we", "us", "our", "EF", "EF High School Exchange Year" and "EF Exchange Year" refers to EF Educational Foundation for Foreign Study, a non-profit corporation organized under the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and our affiliates. The term "you" refers to the customer visiting the Website and/or contributing content on this Website. This privacy statement discloses the privacy practices for EF High School Exchange Year. If you have questions or concerns regarding this statement, you should contact us by email at [email protected]

EF High School Exchange Year is committed to protecting the privacy of our online users and to process your personal data in compliance with applicable privacy and data protection legislation. We would like to share our online information practices and make clear the way your information is collected and used. To make this notice easy to find, it is available via the "Legal Notices" link at the bottom of every page and at every point where personally identifiable information may be requested. This notice applies to all information collected or submitted on the efexchangeyear.org website. When visiting other websites linked from efexchangeyear.org, submitting personally identifiable information is subject to that site's privacy policies. This applies to any external links from our site. We encourage users to check for privacy policies of any sites that collect personally identifiable information.

Collection of Personal Information

On our site, you can sign up to host an exchange student, become a local coordinator, become an EF Exchange School and meet our exchange students. We might ask you for personal information, which includes your name, address, email address and phone number. This information may be collected by EF High School Exchange Year both within and outside the EU/EEA/Switzerland, primarily to complete your transactions and to provide efficient, customized and meaningful experiences online. If you request our catalog or updates about our products and services, then we may also use that information to inform you of new offers, products and services which may be of interest to you. We maintain the confidentiality, security, and integrity of personal information that we obtain from our users. We do not sell, rent, trade, license or otherwise disclose your specific personal information or financial information to any third parties, except when necessary to complete your order or provide services to you.

Collection of Browsing Information

We collect information about IP addresses, types of Web browsers and devices, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), referring and exit pages, operating systems, date/time stamps, search terms, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track users' movement, and gather demographic information. We use this information for marketing purposes to better track what products and services our customers prefer, so that we can tailor your user experience to those preferences.

Use of "Cookies"

"Cookies" are pieces of information that a website transfers to your computer's hard disk for record-keeping purposes. We use both session and persistent cookies. The use of cookies is an industry standard, used to provide useful features for customers. Cookies by themselves, do not personally identify users, although they do identify a user's computer. We may append contact information gathered from third parties to cookie data that we collect. Most Web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually change your browser to prevent that. If you do so, however, you may not be able to take full advantage of our website. For example, the complete online reservation process can only be accessed if you accept cookies.

The Way We Protect Your Information

We do not share the information we collect from you when completing an order with outside parties except to the extent necessary to complete your reservation. When necessary, we may share that information with our corporate affiliates, claims handlers and business partners both within and outside the EU/EEA/Switzerland.

We exercise great care in providing secure transmission of our users' financial information from their computers to our servers by using encryption technology. We use secure online forms and store all information in protected operating environments inaccessible to the public.

We may provide aggregate statistics about our customers, sales, traffic patterns, and related site information to reputable third-party vendors, but these statistics will include no personally identifying information.

Our Commitment to Children's Privacy

Protecting the privacy of children is especially important. For that reason, we comply in all respects with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act ("COPPA") and do not knowingly solicit, request or collect personal information from individuals under the age of 13.

Reviewing or Changing Your Information

You can access personal information online by providing your user name and password when prompted at the login. We use this procedure to better safeguard your information.

You can request changes via email at [email protected], by calling our toll-free number at 800-447-4273 or by sending mail to:

EF High School Exchange Year One Education Street Cambridge, MA 02141

To delete or deactivate your account, please call 800-447-4273.

To protect your privacy and security, we will also take reasonable steps to verify your identity before granting access or making corrections.

Your Consent

By using our website, you consent to the collection and use of this information by efexchangeyear.org. We reserve our right not to respond to any requests to change information collected other than as indicated in "Reviewing or Changing Your Information". If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post any changes on this page, so that you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances we disclose it. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy from time to time so you will know if the Privacy Policy has been changed or updated.

Tell Us What You Think

We welcome your questions and comments about privacy. Should you have any questions or concerns about our privacy policies, please call us at 800-447-4273 or send us an email at [email protected]

Updated as of September 5, 2017

Terms of use

PLEASE READ THIS USER AGREEMENT AND THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THIS SITE.

AGREEMENT BETWEEN USER AND EF EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION FOR FOREIGN STUDY

Welcome to the efexchangeyear.org website (the "Website"). The terms "we", "us", "our", "EF", "EF High School Exchange Year" and "EF Exchange Year" refers to EF Educational Foundation for Foreign Study, a non-profit corporation organized under the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and our affiliates. The term "you" refers to the customer visiting the Website and/or contributing content on this Website. Your use of this site is expressly conditioned on your acceptance without modification of all terms, conditions, and notices set forth below (collectively, the "Terms of Use" or "Agreement"). By using this site, you signify your assent to these Terms of Use. If you do not agree with any part of the Terms of Use, please do not use this site.

PRIVACY

We believe in protecting your privacy. Please review our "Privacy Policy", which also governs your use of our website, to understand our practices.

OWNERSHIP OF CONTENT AND PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES

This website and the computers (including software and files) used to run and maintain them are the property of EF. This website and the computers hosting them, and the content provided in this site, including the text, graphics, button icons, audio and video clips, digital downloads, data compilations and software are the exclusive property of EF and may not be accessed, copied, reproduced, republished, uploaded, posted, transmitted or distributed without the written permission of EF, and/or its third party providers and distributors, except that you may access this site and download, display and print the materials presented on this site for your personal, non-commercial use only.

You may not without the prior written permission of EF use any computer code, data mining software, "robot," "bot," "spider," "scraper" or other automatic device, or program, algorithm or methodology having similar processes or functionality, or any manual process, to monitor or copy any of the web pages, data or content found on this site or accessed through this site. You also may not: engage in the mass downloading of files from this site; use the computer processing power of this site for purposes other than those permitted above; flood this site with electronic traffic designed to slow or stop its operation; or establish links to or from other websites to this site.

You may not download (other than page caching) or modify any portion of this site except with express written consent of EF. You may not:

(i) resell or make commercial use of this site or its contents;

(ii) collect and use any product listings, descriptions, or prices displayed on this site; or

(iii) create, reproduce and/or distribute any materials derived from the content provided on this site.

You are prohibited from posting or transmitting any unlawful, threatening, libelous, defamatory, obscene, indecent, inflammatory, pornographic or profane material or any material that could constitute or encourage conduct that would be considered a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability, or otherwise violate any law. In addition, you are prohibited from posting or transmitting any information which

(a) infringes the rights of others or violates their privacy or publicity rights,

(b) is protected by copyright, trademark or other proprietary right, unless with the express written permission of the owner of such right,

(d) is used to unlawfully collude against another person in restraint of trade or competition.

The above description of the prohibited activities is not intended to be all inclusive and may be altered at any time by EF without notice. You shall be solely liable for any damages resulting from any infringement of copyright, trademark, or other proprietary right, or any other harm resulting from your use of this site.

DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES AND LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

THE CONTENT OF THIS SITE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE AND/OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL EF BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY. OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE ACCESS OR USE OF THIS WEB SITE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

EF is not responsible for any altered or printed versions of the information provided in this website or linked websites, nor any warranty or representation with regard to products or services that are advertised or promoted at linked sites. EF assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions in any website materials. Information contained in this website is subject to change without notice.

CONTROLLING LAW AND JURISDICTION

This Agreement and its performance shall be governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts without regard to its conflict of laws provisions. You consent and submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the provincial and federal courts located in Switzerland in all questions and controversies arising out of your use of this site and this Agreement.

QUESTIONS

If you have any questions as what is considered an authorized use of this site or regarding Terms of Use, send inquiries to [email protected].