I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1185
To amend the Public Health Service Act to provide for the implementation
of curricula for training students, teachers, and school personnel to
understand, recognize, prevent, and respond to signs of human trafficking
and exploitation in children and youth, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY11, 2025
Mr. B
UCHANAN(for himself and Ms. WASSERMANSCHULTZ) introduced the
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce
A BILL
To amend the Public Health Service Act to provide for
the implementation of curricula for training students,
teachers, and school personnel to understand, recognize,
prevent, and respond to signs of human trafficking and
exploitation in children and youth, and for other pur-
poses.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Human Trafficking 4
and Exploitation Prevention Training Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 1
Congress finds the following: 2
(1) According to the National Human Traf-3
ficking Hotline, operated by the National Human 4
Trafficking Resource Center, there is no single pro-5
file for trafficking survivors—trafficking survivors 6
include adults and minors from rural, suburban, and 7
urban communities across the country. Survivors of 8
human trafficking have diverse socioeconomic back-9
grounds, varied levels of education, and may be doc-10
umented or undocumented. According to the 2018 11
Trafficking In Persons Report produced by the De-12
partment of State, the Department of Justice, the 13
National Human Trafficking Resource Center, and 14
Youth.gov, vulnerable populations and risk factors 15
for human trafficking include— 16
(A) children in the child welfare and juve-17
nile justice systems; 18
(B) runaway youth; 19
(C) homeless youth; 20
(D) youth forced to leave home by parents 21
or caregivers with no alternate care arranged; 22
(E) unaccompanied children; 23
(F) American Indians and Alaska Natives; 24
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(G) migrant laborers, including undocu-1
mented workers and individuals with temporary 2
visas; 3
(H) recent migration or relocation; 4
(I) persons with disabilities; 5
(J) LGBTI individuals; 6
(K) people of color; 7
(L) those with limited-English proficiency; 8
(M) low literacy; 9
(N) substance abuse; 10
(O) mental health issues; 11
(P) past trauma or violence; 12
(Q) stigma or discrimination; 13
(R) family conflict, disruption, or dysfunc-14
tion; 15
(S) community-level risk factors such as 16
peer pressure, social norms, social isolation, 17
gang involvement, and living in an under- 18
resourced school, neighborhood, or community; 19
and 20
(T) society-level risk factors such as lack 21
of awareness of commercial exploitation and 22
human trafficking, sexualization of children, 23
and lack of resources. 24
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(2) According to the National Human Traf-1
ficking Resource Center, human trafficking survivors 2
have been identified in cities, suburbs, and rural 3
areas in all 50 States, and in Washington, DC. The 4
3 States with the highest incidents of human traf-5
ficking cases reported via phone calls, emails, and 6
online tips to the National Human Trafficking Hot-7
line in 2018 were California, Texas, and Florida, re-8
spectively. 9
(3) According to the National Human Traf-10
ficking Resource Center, the top recruitment meth-11
ods used by sex traffickers based on self-reported 12
data from survivors involve an intimate partner or 13
marriage proposition, family members, individuals 14
posing as a benefactor, offers of employment, or in-15
dividuals perpetrating fraud or offering false prom-16
ises. 17
(4) According to the National Center on Safe 18
Supportive Learning Environments, traffickers may 19
systematically target vulnerable children by fre-20
quenting locations where children congregate—malls, 21
schools, bus and train stations, and group homes, 22
among other locations. Traffickers also use peers or 23
classmates who befriend the target and slowly groom 24
the child for the trafficker by bringing the child 25
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along to parties and other activities. According to 1
Common Sense Media, nearly all children age 8 and 2
under live in a home with some type of mobile device 3
and use it every day. This is especially concerning 4
given that traffickers often recruit through social 5
media platforms and other websites. 6
(5) Those within vulnerable populations are 7
often exploited or groomed for entry into human 8
trafficking at a very young age. According to a 2005 9
clinical report, ‘‘The Evaluation of Sexual Abuse in 10
Children’’, published by the American Academy of 11
Pediatrics, studies have suggested that each year ap-12
proximately 739,000 children experience some form 13
of sexual abuse, resulting in the sexual victimization 14
of 12 percent to 25 percent of girls and 8 percent 15
to 10 percent of boys before the age of 18. 16
(6) Sex trafficking and exploitation can take 17
many harmful forms, including a lesser-known but 18
just as damaging form of uncoerced exploitation re-19
ferred to as ‘‘survival sex’’, meaning the exchange of 20
sex for basic needs including clothing, food, shelter, 21
or other basic necessities. Survival sex does not in-22
volve a third-party trafficker or exploiter, and often 23
affects youth, including those who are homeless, 24
runaways, or housing-insecure, who lack the finan-25
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cial resources, job readiness, support system, or op-1
portunity to afford or access these basic necessities. 2
(7) Training students, teachers, and school per-3
sonnel to understand, recognize, and respond to 4
signs of human trafficking and exploitation in chil-5
dren and youth is invaluable in the effort to identify 6
and prevent human trafficking and exploitation be-7
fore it occurs. According to the National Human 8
Trafficking Resource Center, the widespread lack of 9
awareness and understanding of human trafficking 10
leads to low levels of survivor identification by the 11
people who most often encounter them. Survivors of 12
human trafficking are often forced to work or pro-13
vide commercial sex against their will in legal and le-14
gitimate business settings or underground markets. 15
It is often the case that those who are being ex-16
ploited or trafficked are in plain view and may inter-17
act with community members, underscoring the ur-18
gent need for the expansion of training programs to 19
increase awareness and prevention activities in com-20
munities across the United States. 21
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SEC. 3. DEMONSTRATION PROJECT TO TRAIN STUDENTS, 1
TEACHERS, AND SCHOOL PERSONNEL TO UN-2
DERSTAND, RECOGNIZE, PREVENT, AND RE-3
SPOND TO SIGNS OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING 4
AND CHILD EXPLOITATION. 5
Section 582 of the Public Health Service Act (42 6
U.S.C. 290hh–1) is amended— 7
(1) by redesignating subsections (j) and (k) as 8
subsections (k) and (l), respectively; 9
(2) by inserting after subsection (i) the fol-10
lowing: 11
‘‘(j) D
EMONSTRATION PROJECTTOTRAINSTU-12
DENTS, TEACHERS, ANDSCHOOLPERSONNELTOUN-13
DERSTAND, RECOGNIZE, PREVENT, ANDRESPOND TO 14
S
IGNS OFHUMANTRAFFICKING AND CHILDEXPLOI-15
TATION.— 16
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Director of the Office 17
on Trafficking in Persons of the Administration for 18
Children and Families (in this subsection referred to 19
as the ‘Director’) shall carry out a demonstration 20
project for training students, teachers, and school 21
personnel at elementary schools and secondary 22
schools to understand, recognize, prevent, and re-23
spond to signs of human trafficking and exploitation 24
in children and youth. 25
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‘‘(2) PROJECT ACTIVITIES.—In carrying out the 1
demonstration project under this subsection, the Di-2
rector shall— 3
‘‘(A) approve vendors pursuant to para-4
graph (3); 5
‘‘(B) award grants pursuant to paragraph 6
(4); 7
‘‘(C) develop a reliable methodology for 8
vendors and grantees to collect, and report to 9
the Director, in a manner that prevents disclo-10
sure of individually identifiable information con-11
sistent with all applicable privacy laws and reg-12
ulations, data on the number of human traf-13
ficking survivors identified and served pursuant 14
to this subsection, the number of students in el-15
ementary school or secondary school identified 16
as being at risk of being trafficked or exploited, 17
and the demographics of such survivors and 18
students at risk; and 19
‘‘(D) assist entities that are eligible for 20
grants under paragraph (4) in developing prop-21
er protocols and procedures to— 22
‘‘(i) work with law enforcement to re-23
port, and facilitate communication with, 24
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human trafficking survivors and exploited 1
children; and 2
‘‘(ii) refer human trafficking survivors 3
and exploited children to appropriate social 4
or survivor service agencies or organiza-5
tions. 6
‘‘(3) V
ENDORS.— 7
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—In carrying out the 8
demonstration project under this subsection, 9
the Director shall approve a list of nonprofit or-10
ganizations as verified vendors— 11
‘‘(i) to develop or make available cur-12
ricula for the training described in para-13
graph (1); and 14
‘‘(ii) to implement such training in ac-15
cordance with such curricula. 16
‘‘(B) C
ONSIDERATIONS.—In approving 17
vendors under this subsection, the Director 18
shall give consideration to whether the non-19
profit organization— 20
‘‘(i) engages stakeholders, including 21
survivors of human trafficking, and Fed-22
eral, State, local, and Tribal partners, to 23
develop the curricula; and 24
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‘‘(ii) has a demonstrated expertise 1
in— 2
‘‘(I) developing human traf-3
ficking and exploitation prevention 4
curricula for students, teachers, or 5
school personnel in elementary school 6
and secondary school that is— 7
‘‘(aa) age-appropriate; 8
‘‘(bb) culturally competent; 9
‘‘(cc) evidence based; 10
‘‘(dd) validated by university 11
research partners; 12
‘‘(ee) inclusive of K–12 stu-13
dents; 14
‘‘(ff) adaptive to all regions; 15
‘‘(gg) inclusive of all chil-16
dren; and 17
‘‘(hh) based on vetted and 18
proven materials that have been 19
tested over a 3-year run of suc-20
cess; 21
‘‘(II) training students, teachers, 22
or school personnel in identification 23
and proper response to human traf-24
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ficking described in paragraph (1); 1
and 2
‘‘(III) creating a scalable, repeat-3
able ‘Train the Trainer’ program (de-4
fined as a program that trains in-5
structors who can teach material to 6
other instructors) that employs appro-7
priate technology tools and methodolo-8
gies, including measurement and 9
training curricula. 10
‘‘(4) G
RANTS.— 11
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—In carrying out the 12
demonstration project under this subsection, 13
the Director shall award grants to eligible enti-14
ties to implement the training described in 15
paragraph (1) in accordance with the curricula 16
developed and made available by verified ven-17
dors pursuant to paragraph (3). 18
‘‘(B) D
IVERSITY OF GRANTS .—In award-19
ing grants under this subsection, the Director 20
shall— 21
‘‘(i) consult with the Director of the 22
Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Adminis-23
trator for the Office of Juvenile Justice 24
and Delinquency Prevention, the Director 25
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of the Office for Victims of Crime, and the 1
head of the Office of Partnership and En-2
gagement of the Department of Homeland 3
Security to identify the geographic areas in 4
the United States with the highest preva-5
lence of reported human trafficking in-6
stances for children, aged 5 through 17; 7
‘‘(ii) consult, as appropriate, with the 8
Secretary of Education, the Secretary of 9
Housing and Urban Development, the Sec-10
retary of Labor, and the Attorney General 11
of the United States to identify the geo-12
graphic areas in the United States with 13
the highest prevalence of at risk, vulner-14
able, or underserved populations, including 15
homeless youth, foster youth, youth in-16
volved in the child welfare system, and 17
runaways; and 18
‘‘(iii) give priority to eligible entities 19
located in, or primarily serving, one or 20
more areas identified pursuant to clause (i) 21
or (ii). 22
‘‘(C) A
LLOCATION OF GRANT FUNDING .— 23
The Director shall ensure that all grant funds 24
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under this subsection are awarded to applicants 1
who serve K–12 students. 2
‘‘(D) D
EFINITION.—In this paragraph, the 3
term ‘eligible entity’ includes a nonprofit orga-4
nization, an elementary school, a local edu-5
cational agency, a secondary school, and a State 6
educational agency. 7
‘‘(5) D
ATA COLLECTION AND REPORTING .— 8
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Director shall 9
collect, and report to the Congress, data on the 10
following: 11
‘‘(i) The total number of entities that 12
received a grant under this subsection. 13
‘‘(ii) The total number of elementary 14
and secondary schools that established 15
proper protocols and procedures through 16
program development. 17
‘‘(iii) The total number and geo-18
graphic distribution of students, teachers, 19
and school personnel trained pursuant to 20
this subsection. 21
‘‘(iv) The results of pretraining and 22
posttraining surveys to gauge increased 23
understanding and recognition of signs of 24
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human trafficking and exploitation in chil-1
dren and youth. 2
‘‘(v) The number of human trafficking 3
survivors and exploited children identified 4
and served by vendors and grantees under 5
this subsection, excluding any individually 6
identifiable information about such sur-7
vivors and children. 8
‘‘(vi) The number of students in ele-9
mentary school or secondary school identi-10
fied by vendors and grantees under this 11
subsection as being at risk of being traf-12
ficked or exploited, excluding any individ-13
ually identifiable information about such 14
survivors. 15
‘‘(vii) The demographics of human 16
trafficking survivors, exploited children, 17
and students at risk of being trafficked or 18
exploited described in clauses (v) and (vi), 19
excluding any individually identifiable in-20
formation about such survivors, children, 21
and students. 22
‘‘(viii) Any best practices identified by 23
the grantees under this subsection. 24
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‘‘(B) ANNUAL REPORT .—The Director 1
shall— 2
‘‘(i) submit a report under subpara-3
graph (A) not later than 1 year after the 4
date of enactment of this subsection and 5
annually thereafter; and 6
‘‘(ii) prepare and submit each such re-7
port in a manner that prevents the disclo-8
sure of individually identifiable information 9
consistent with all applicable privacy laws 10
and regulations. 11
‘‘(6) D
EFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 12
‘‘(A) The terms ‘elementary school’, ‘local 13
educational agency’, ‘middle grades’, ‘secondary 14
school’, and ‘State educational agency’ have the 15
meanings given to those terms in section 8101 16
of the Elementary and Secondary Education 17
Act of 1965. 18
‘‘(B) The term ‘school personnel’ includes 19
school resource officers, school nurses, school 20
counselors, school principals, school administra-21
tors, and other school leadership.’’; and 22
(3) in subsection (k) (authorizing appropria-23
tions), as redesignated by paragraph (1)— 24
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(A) by striking ‘‘There is authorized to be 1
appropriated to carry out this section’’ and in-2
serting the following: 3
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—There is authorized to be 4
appropriated to carry out this section (other than 5
subsection (j))’’; and 6
(B) by adding at the end the following: 7
‘‘(2) D
EMONSTRATION PROJECT FUNDING .— 8
There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out 9
subsection (j) $15,000,000 for each of fiscal years 10
2026 through 2029.’’. 11
Æ
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