The information about schools in MyAFS is only accurate if we all work together to keep it current. If you see information that is missing or incorrect, PLEASE correct it using the information below or ask your School Partnerships staff person to update it on your behalf. Thank you for your help!

This article walks through:

• How to Find School Information in MyAFS
• How to Update Key School Staff Personnel
• How to Update School Acceptance Policies
• A Note about School Districts

How to Find School Information in MyAFS

To find school information in MyAFS, go to the Team section on the left-hand menu:

From here, find the Schools tab across the top of the page:

Use the search boxes to search by school name, city, county, state, or zip code.  Note that schools are displayed by their Hosting Status, so you may need to adjust the check boxes to find the school you seek. 

The list of schools can easily be sorted by clicking on the column headers.  In this case, the list was sorted by School Name: 

To see more detail about a specific school in MyAFS, click on the school’s name.  The results will depend on how well volunteers and staff have updated the school's record.  Please keep reading to learn How to Update Key School Staff Personnel and How to Update School Acceptance Policies.

How to Update Key School Staff Personnel

Some schools, like the one pictured below, may have very little information recorded regarding the best contacts for the school. Or the information might be outdated. You can help fix that by clicking on the Add School Contact Person button at the top of the page.  

Then follow the prompts to add a new person.

MyAFS will try to make sure that a duplicate person isn't added.  However, in most cases, you'll need to select to Add a New Person here: 

When adding a new person, you will need the first name, last name, and email address of the individual.  You can add the person's city, state, or zip if you know it, but this additional information is optional. 

Please note, only a select few people can be added this way: the Principal, PAF Receiver, School Hosting Contact, AFS Champion, World Languages Dept Chair, and School Sending Contact.   

• PAF Receivers are the people in the School or at the District level to whom you send hosted student information in order to get school approval and PAFs (Placement Acceptance Forms) signed.
• School Hosting Contacts are the people in the school in charge of exchange students or the people you go to with questions about exchange students.
• AFS Champions are the people always willing to promote AFS opportunities and advocate for having exchange students and for sending U.S. students abroad.
• School Sending Contacts are the people you contact to talk about students interested in studying abroad and/or study abroad scholarships. 

The system will also automatically capture and record people who sign online PAFs. The name and email address of the most recent PAF Signer cannot be edited in MyAFS (see image below).

It is okay if a person wears more than one hat.  Maybe the Principal is the PAF Receiver, the PAF Signer, and the School Hosting Contact.  In other cases, one person needs to be sent the PAF, a second person signs the PAF (maybe even at the School District level), the Principal may have very little to do with exchange students, but the Registrar, or an Assistant Principal, or maybe even a Counselor is the key contact for students once they arrive (and would be considered the School Hosting Contact).  Here is an example of a school with many different contact people:

Note that this school even has an AFS School Representative, a volunteer who is building or has established a relationship with the school. To be listed as an AFS School Representative, please take the School Outreach training and let the School Partnerships staff know so we can make sure you are affiliated with the school properly. You can also learn more about the AFS staff and volunteer roles when it comes to schools by reading Volunteer and Staff Roles in School Relationships.

How to Update School Acceptance Policies

Aside from updating staff contacts, you can also click on the top of the page to view more school information in Global Link where we can also record additional information about a school such as its acceptance criteria for exchange students, annual school start and end dates, and a contact log where conversations with school staff can be documented.  Detailed instructions on how to make updates in Global Link can be found here.  We are working to make it possible to edit school acceptance details directly in MyAFS though for now step-by-step instructions can be found here.  Stay tuned! 

A Note about School Districts

In 2022, we imported information about every U.S. School District into Global Link.  We will soon be linking each School District to their high schools in a more robust way and making School District information searchable and editable on MyAFS.  Stay tuned!  Currently, staff or volunteers must link school districts manually to schools to have District information appear in MyAFS here: 

If you need assistance linking a School District or updating School District information in Global Link, please do not hesitate to reach out to your School Partnerships staff person.  

If you have any questions about school information in MyAFS or in Global Link, please contact your School Partnerships staff person as found in the Team directory.