For over a year I’ve had conversations with parents that were unexpected, but not surprising. The first was with a European family. They signed a contract last summer with a prep school and became very concerned about the travel ban that President Trump declared. While they did not reside in a country on the proposed ban list, they were worried that they would pay for tuition and with one tweet their son could be denied entry into the US. We had to actually get an assurance from the school that their money would be refunded if a travel ban were to happen. This was a valid question that neither me nor the school had needed to address before. I was pleased that the school would not hesitate to refund the tuition paid should that ban have taken place.
The next topic I am now asked to discuss with families is gun violence in US schools. Some foreigners look at the US school system and are wary of the potential for an active shooter situation. Active shooter training is now common in schools throughout the US. I try to assure parents that their kids will be safe, but I cannot promise this. A kid can be bullied or have mental issues at a private or public school and take it out on his fellow classmates. While this is unfortunate, it is the society in which we now live. I urge parents to ask the schools they are applying to about their active shooter training and what they do to try and prevent one of these events from happening. Parent’s also need to ask each school about what policies they have in place for bullying and cyber-bullying.
These unfortunately are current real-world issues that need to be considered by parent’s sending their kids to US schools.