There is something up with how this is being done in the area, and to be honest, it puts the exchange students in a really difficult situation, (which sucks for a kid who's an eleventh grader completely in a different country and out of their element.)

I don't know if this is specific agencies that are doing this,
-or if it's just a trend in general,
but in the past two years I personally know families that have had the following:

-Situations where they agreed to have one foreign exchange student,
-only to be approached at the last minute by the agency and told that there is another student that has come across and is with a family where things 'are not working out.'

-'Not working out' seems to happen a bit more than anybody sane would be comfortable with.
What does 'not working out,' mean?

-Kids are slated to come here to stay, only to find out that the host families have dissolved (host families suddenly breaking up,)

-Kids come here to stay, (sometimes more than one,) and going to host families where the kids are given (literally,) basically a shed to stay in, and are kind of considered low/no wage participants in family business (basically treated the same or worse than migrant workers.)

A lot of the situations 'fall through,' reportedly 'as the kid is flying over here,'
-but that scenario really should have be checked into, and assured (that the kid has a place to go, where the kid is going is actually phys/emotionally healthy, -etc.) -before the kid ever leaves their home country.

The 'safety,' or 'back up plan?'
-As families that have agreed to take on only one or two kids, to take on further, -which puts everybody in a strained or awkward position.

One situation I know of, -the host family agreed to take in an additional kid, -because they were found (with another kid,) again, basically being used for cheap labor,
The (new) host family was asked to take (again,) additional (more than they had signed up for,) kids the following year. (Basically because they said 'yes,' the first time, they were then known as a family that could be used as a safety the next. (Things did not work out well the second time.)

In one instance, an exchange student was literally sitting in the back of one of the co-ordinators cars, as the co-ordinator went up to a persons place of business, approached them as they were headed home, and explained that 'the student was here, but that there really was no host family to receive them.'
--It was almost the same as a 'baby in a basket,' situation, and the person who was approached said 'sure,'
-but it was a real surprise, (fortunately their family was understanding, and they were in the sort of work where taking care of others was a manner of life for them.)
But you don't just 'bring a kid over from another country,' and then 'just find a place for them.'

In all circumstances, btw? the kids were here for at least a full school year, if not 10 to 11 months.

There is the very real situation that a lot of these students are coming from social customs and upbringings that may be very different from the host families,
-and the mismatch can be a bit severe
(family leadership styles,
personal freedoms,
levels of acceptable personal interaction with members of the opposite sex,
smoking-drinking,
etc.
--It's not just 'they do things a little differently back home,'
-it can be RADICALLY different,
(which is fine, -provided that the host families and the visiting students understand that the differences exist.)

It's pretty scarey (for the visiting student,) as it's becoming apparent that there are a lot of circumstances where they are kind of winding up as footballs thrown in a hail-mary pass, -what happens to them over here does not seem to be well controlled, and there is a lot of
'...oh my god, we can't just let them wander the streets, so we'll let them stay with us...' that these agencies appear to be falling back on.

Mixing that factor, and that the culture shock and living styles can be so significantly different means things 'not working out,' and really being difficult.

As much as this can be excellent, in some very real manners it can be severely difficult, to say the least.

So, yeah, 'non-committal,' is a word here, yup, scarey is another.