Helena Hessenflow babysat all summer long, putting away 75% of her earnings toward her trip to Italy scheduled for spring break.

The Hampshire High School senior first heard about the trip as a sophomore. Hessenflow, 10 other students and three adults held fundraisers selling seeds for plants and cookie dough. The trip cost about $3,500 a student.

When Italy’s COVID-19 outbreak worsened, Hessenflow’s trip was rescheduled for France. Then, last week, it was postponed altogether. ACIS Educational Tours, the company organizing the study abroad trip, gave the students three options: reschedule in June or July for an additional $600 to $900 each, reschedule next spring for free or cancel the trip and receive $1,000 in cash and $1,000 in travel vouchers, while losing out on $1,500.

There is no guarantee traveling will be an option in June or July. For the seniors – about half of the 11 students – next year is not an option. They’re scattering to different colleges with different spring break schedules.

“It’s not like it was our doing,” Hessenflow said. “We didn’t want to cancel the trip. It’s not really our fault when this is going around and even hotels and airlines are making accommodations.”

Hessenflow’s story is playing out similarly for students all across the country.

High School District 155 in Crystal Lake canceled numerous trips abroad over spring break. Prairie Ridge junior Mara Garbanzos will not be making her trip to France, which was scheduled through EF Educational Tours.

Like Hessenflow, Garbanzos and her family were given the option to reschedule for a future date or take a refund minus $1,000. Garbanzos’ mother, Cheryl Myers, said they spent about $3,500 on the trip.

“We’ve been paying and planning for this trip for about two years,” Myers said. “I completely understand; I wouldn’t want her traveling at this point anyway. But with everything going on, I would think they’d be more flexible.”

Myers said the school district held a meeting with parents March 9. They were told that representatives from EF Tours declined an invitation to attend the meeting.

A petition demanding EF Tours provide a full refund on change.org had garnered more than 1,700 signatures as of Thursday afternoon.

Then there are students whose trips are in limbo. Explorica, another study abroad company, has postponed all trips through May 15. La Salle-Peru senior Odin Klotz is supposed to travel to Europe in June, but his mother, Kelly Klotz, already is looking to get their money back.

Explorica hasn’t postponed the trip yet, but Kelly Klotz is not optimistic it will be safe for her son to travel in June. She said she can’t get an answer from anyone at Explorica regarding her son’s trip. She has made calls, tried the “chat” function on the website and sent emails. All met with silence.

Explorica is offering similar options for trips that already have been postponed: reschedule for a future date or receive a refund “less nonrecoverable costs.”

“He can’t just reschedule it,” Kelly Klotz said. “It’s not a doctor’s appointment. This is a 10-day trip to Europe. He doesn’t want to go somewhere else. And he doesn’t want to go alone. I’m like, do I try to cancel it? They won’t even respond to me.”

Odin Klotz’s trip includes stops in Budapest, Hungary; Vienna, Austria; Prague, Czech Republic; and Munich, Germany.

Kelly Klotz, a single mother, said her son works at a local grocery store, which helped pay for the trip. Friends and family have given money at birthdays and Christmas specifically for this trip.

“They donated that money for my son to go on a trip,” Kelly Klotz said. “Not for this company to stay in business when this epidemic is over. If he can’t go a mile away to his graduation ceremony, he’s not getting on a plane.”