MIAMI (WSVN) - The Miami-Dade County Public Schools district is looking to increase safety for foreign exchange students living in South Florida.
M-DCPS Superintendent Alberto Carvalho proposed a new rule that would require more background checks on potential hosts.
Officials said, over the last decade, more than 100 foreign exchange students nationwide have reported being sexually assaulted.
“It is a both horrifying and sad realization that hundreds of students who come into this country expecting to benefit from great education in fact become vulnerable to horrific potential abuse at the hands of the host families,” said Carvalho.
This new effort followed a shocking case in South Florida.
Police said Dale Leary sexually assaulted a teenage exchange student he and his wife were hosting in Cutler Bay.
According to investigators, he then married that victim when she turned 18, and the pair then assaulted her younger sister.
They were arrested.
Police said Leary killed himself after bonding out of jail.
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