Awful Prgram September 03, 2024

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

On-site administration of your program

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

I am deeply disappointed with CIEE's handling of my child's recent travel experience, which has left us questioning the organization's ability to manage the safety and wellbeing of minors. Despite multiple texts and calls to CIEE's emergency hotline, the response was delayed and inadequate. The lack of urgency and concern was distressing, with the staff member I finally reached being unresponsive and dismissive, leaving us feeling unimportant and abandoned in a moment of crisis. Our ordeal began when we brought our son to the airport and paid the required unaccompanied minor fee at SFO, with the understanding that CIEE had arranged for a chaperone to accompany our 14-year-old son during his connecting flight in Dallas. However, only one chaperone was assigned to three minors coming from all over the country to meet in Dallas before boarding another plane to Paris. One of these minors was our son. When he unfortunately missed his flight in Dallas due to a hail storm in Oklahoma, his assigned chaperone waiting in Dallas left for Paris with the other students who arrived on time, leaving our son stranded. This was a clear failure by CIEE to follow their own standard operating procedures, which should have ensured our son's safety and support during transit. The situation deteriorated further when a second chaperone arrived at the airport but WAS NOT LISTED ON OUR SON'S ITINERARY PAPERWORK, causing confusion with American Airlines, and preventing him from boarding any alternative flight. This lack of planning and appropriate backup measures by CIEE resulted in him being stranded, without even his passport, which the second chaperone "misplaced running between customer service desks to try and get our son on a plane." The passport was cancelled while he was still at the airport so we had to purchase a new passport upon his return. The two other students he was traveling with from CA were older teens (note: teens older than 14 are not considered an "unaccompanied minor"). The chaperone abandoned my son at the unaccompanied minor's office at the Dallas airport, leaving with the other two students to stay at a hotel. The next morning the chaperone came by the office and told him, "You wouldn't want to go on this trip anyway, it's going to be a very stressful itinerary." Then left with the other students on a ridiculous flight that went from Dallas, then Puerto Rico, then Spain and finally to Paris. If I was their parents I would be livid. The students must have been exhausted upon their arrival. I'm very grateful for FaceTime, as I was on the phone with my son all night while he was in Dallas waiting for his dad to pick him up. The people running the unaccompanied minor's office did not get kids cots for sleeping until 1 AM, and they were yelling at kids younger than my son for crying instead of comforting them. I am grateful he had two emergency batteries in his backpack for his phone so I could keep an eye on him through this ordeal. His father flew to Dallas to retrieve him, incurring significant stress and expense. Meanwhile, the communication from CIEE was sorely lacking, with his host family in Paris being misinformed about his arrival. I was the one that filled them in via WhatsApp. They had no idea he was stuck in Dallas overnight alone as they were preparing to leave to pick him up! CIEE did finally reimburse us for the program fee, however, they did not reimburse us for the expenses incurred to retrieve our son after he was abandoned at the airport in Dallas due to their mismanagement of their processes. This cost to us was $3728.41. I gave them several months to reconcile with us, and shared with them that I would write this review if they did not pay us back. This entire experience has been a nightmare, and we are extremely upset by CIEE's mismanagement, lack of appropriate protocols, and poor communication during this emergency situation. I strongly urge CIEE to review and improve their procedures to ensure that no other student and family has to endure what we did. I will never recommend CIEE to anyone. I also reported this incident to our school district, who had recommended their program.

(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost)

0 = No encouragement, 5 = frequent encouragement to use the language

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• Other

• nothing
• nothing
• nothing

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