August 14, 2020
Academic Year (AYP) Hosting Changes
July and August have brought changes in Academic Year Exchanges through States’ 4-H for 2020-20211 because of Covid-19. Arrival for students from Japan and South Korea has been delayed due to Embassies and Consulates staying closed, which have made it impossible for students to schedule interviews to get the required J-1 visas for LEX students from Japan. As of this writing August 10, just one student headed for Kansas from South Korea has received her visa. Two Japanese are still awaiting visa interviews. One Japanese girl, a member of LEX, decided to wait until next year. We were able to substitute another LEX girl with the scheduled Stevens County family. Then LEX decided to reduce their participants to just those for whom 2020-21 was their last opportunity. This change eliminated the substitute girl and another destined for Shawnee County. We are currently waiting to see if he Shawnee girl can be replaced by student placed in another state. Finally, a student in the FLEX program chosen by an Allen County family, will be coming no earlier than second semester. We are waiting for a final decision by FLEX on who will be allowed to come second semester. We are still hoping one Japanese and one South Korean can arrive September 4 and travel to their prospective host families in Shawnee and Ness counties September 5 and a boy from the Ukraine coming second semester for the Allen county hosts. The students really want to come, especially because they have been communicating with host family members for several months. We expect the students arriving in September will begin school after 14 days quarantine.