In order for a placement to become official, formal school approval is required by securing a signed Placement Acceptance Form (PAF) from the school.
There is a handy feature in Global Link that will allow you to email the PAF and student application directly to a school for electronic approval. We encourage all volunteers to use this method when possible due to its ease and the fact that it doesn't include large email attachments which often get caught by school email filters!
Please see this video to learn more about this feature:
Written instructions are available here: How to Email a PAF and Student Application to a School
The online PAF is an easy way to have your school provide the required information for the placement. In addition, using the online PAF instead of the traditional paper form provides the added benefit of automatically updating the school year start and end dates in Global Link so that we will have the most accurate information in the database for future reference. The online PAF also automatically uploads a PDF version to the Host Family application so that the school does not have to fax or email a scanned version of the paper PAF to AFS.
Given all of that, it is sometimes necessary to bring the PAF directly to the school official to have it signed, especially if the school has been unresponsive to email. Click here to learn How to Generate PDFs of a PAF & Student Application via Global Link or download the form. Once signed, this form can then be loaded into Global Link by using these instructions: Submitting a PAF in Global Link. The signed PAF can also be emailed to hostingpaperwork@afsusa.org and your Team Development Specialist.
You may want to visit School Information in Global Link to learn more about managing school information including how to add or update the school contacts to whom the PAF can be sent.
And if you are having trouble getting a school to say "Yes" to hosting a student, check out the Getting to Yes article.