Alexandra, one thing I forgot. In American schools, kids come to the school and cannot leave the school until the end of the day. If they don’t have class at a particular hour, they are assigned Study Hall which is a room where the kids go to do their homework or study. It could be the library or the cafeteria. I see high school kids here wandering around the streets at all hours of the day. The school system in the US are supposed to control the presence of the students at all times during the day so the kids are not allowed to leave unless they present a written note from the parents for a doctor’s appt or religious service they have to attend (eg, burial of a family member). Therefore, the American schools are more controlling of the students time than the French schools or at least that’s the way it appears to me. BTW, I did my MBA in Philidelphia and some sections of that city are dangerous. I hope she is going to one of the suburbs of which there are some very nice ones.