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The most common problem, though, is a mismatch of expectations. The au pairs, nearly all of whom are female, think they're embarking on a cultural adventure; the hosts, who are mostly two-income couples, think they're getting cheap, legal, full-time help. "It's sold abroad as a great way to experience American culture, and here as a great way to get inexpensive child care," says Senator Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat. "You're bound to have problems."
Leahy turned his attention to the au pair program in 1993 after one of his former staffers discovered that her then four-year-old son had been photographed in the nude by Stefan Kahl, 26, a German au pair. Kahl was subsequently convicted of child molestation and deported. Leahy suspected that such abuse was not unique and began investigating. Then last August, Dutch au pair Anna-Corina Peeze, 19, whose case goes before a grand jury next month, was charged with involuntary manslaughter after her charge, eight-week-old Brenton Devonshire of Ashburn, Virginia, was shaken to death. A week later, the Cleveland Plain Dealer ran a series that documented some 300 cases of trouble in au pair placement. Leahy seized on the publicity to introduce legislation requiring the USIA to actively regulate au pair programs.
A draft of these new regulations, obtained by TIME, indicates that the USIA intends to clamp down on screening, training and work requirements for au pairs. Under the new guidelines, scheduled to go into effect Jan. 1, all families must submit to a background check, including employment and personal references. The au pairs must be English-speaking high school graduates who have passed both a physical examination and a criminal-record check. Their training, which in most cases consists of a single agency-sponsored orientation day, will be boosted to 40 hours. To better enforce the rule that restricts the au pair work week to 45 hours, families will have to sign a contract that specifies days and hours, and agency representatives will be required to contact the au pairs weekly. Au pair salaries will be boosted to $155 a week.
The USIA draft also restricts au pairs to homes where the children are at least two years old -- but that is likely to change. In the wake of agency < complaints that the rule would cut their business almost by half, the USIA is considering a three-month-old age limit, but with the proviso that only au pairs over age 21 can work with children younger than two. Three agencies contacted by TIME also questioned the extended hours of child-care and safety training, arguing that this will drive up the program's costs and price out many middle-income families.