Sarasota County Schools will begin accepting placement packets for inbound J-1 Visa Foreign Exchange students requesting a 2025-2026 school assignment in the Spring of 2025. Placement is contingent upon district approval and available capacity at each school. School assignment will be based on the residential address of the host family.

Students from a foreign country must fulfill all federal, state, and district eligibility requirements. These include but are not limited to: being sponsored by a Foreign Exchange Student Program that is approved by the Council on Standards for International Educational Travel (CSIET), having a J-1 Visa, and receiving the approval of the Sarasota County Schools district office. After meeting these requirements, a student from another country may attend a Sarasota County high school at the discretion of the School Board of Sarasota County.

CSIET-approved organizations and institutions sponsoring students must have a local representative who resides in Sarasota County to be eligible to participate in the district’s Foreign Exchange Student Program.

All students must be approved by the district through the Office of School Choice before enrolling in a district school (including charter schools). Applications will be considered in the order in which they are received. In no case may the number of foreign exchange students exceed 1 percent of the school’s enrollment. The district reserves the right to limit the number of students placed by any sponsor or from any country.

Additional forms and information will be available as we approach the open application window in the Spring.

Please note, the district is not eligible to enroll F-1 (Student Visa) students and cannot issue a Form I-20. 

Contact the School Choice office for more information by phone at (941) 927-9000 ext. 32255 or email School Choice Department.