Several Taiwanese high school students who thought they would stay with host families while attending American schools for up to a year were scrambling to find new living and school arrangements.

Cal Johnson, executive director of student services for the Mead School District, north of Spokane, blamed a local student exchange program for lack of organization.
``I don't care where the communication broke down,'' Johnson said Friday. ``The kids were dumped here. That's not fair to the kids and their families.''

After arriving in the Northwest last week, some Taiwanese students still were uncertain where they will live and attend school. Four are now in Mead and one is in Wallace, Idaho, The Spokesman-Review reported Friday.

Academic Exchange of America was supposed to arrange all the details for 13 students it brought to Washington. But few had permanent placements, temporary host families said. Several had no school arrangements made for them, and at least two have not yet been to school.

``We were told we would have a host family and go to a public school,'' said Heidi Chen, who is staying in Mead. ``When we got here, we didn't have it. We don't know why.''
All the students were greeted in Seattle by families who had been contacted the day before and thought they were playing host for a week or so, a former area coordinator said.

``I was under the impression things were set up,'' Mead resident and temporary host Christian Piccolo said. ``I thought they'd stay a week or 10 days.''

Eric Carlson, board president for AEA, said in a phone interview Thursday with the newspaper that arrangements were in place for the students when they arrived. He denied that some had not attended school.

Attempts by The Associated Press to reach Carlson on Friday were unsuccessful. He has an unlisted number.

Vicenta Cisneros, who was an area coordinator for AEA until she quit Wednesday, got a call from the 2-year-old nonprofit agency last week saying that 13 students were on their way from Taiwan, would arrive the next day in Seattle, and needed places to stay.

She said the agency wanted her to find housing for nine of them.

Cisneros said she agreed to lend a hand when officials told her that without help, the students would be sent back to Taiwan.

The agency assured her that they occasionally arrange temporary ``welcome'' housing, and then work on permanent housing when the students arrive, she said.

Andrea Piccolo said two boys staying in her home have been spending days playing computer games and studying an English workbook while Mead district officials work to get the boys into another school.

Carlson would not comment on the Taiwanese students in Spokane, saying it is his organization's policy not to discuss specific students or situations, or the amount they pay to come to the United States.

But he insisted arrangements had been in place for the students. Sometimes such agreements with schools are verbal and officials change their minds about accepting exchange students, he said.

Cisneros said she will work with the Piccolos to make sure the four students in Spokane get settled.

``I'm devastated that anyone would bring children to the United States without first having a school accept them and the home previously screened,'' she said.

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