Human Trafficking and the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC)

Sex Trafficking of Minors: How to Recognize and Respond to the Trafficking of Students

This brief provides educators with an overview of the issue of sex trafficking of minors and suggests specific steps that schools can take to recognize and respond to signs of trafficking among students. It also offers suggestions for how state coordinators for homeless education and local homeless education liaisons can help guide their states’ and school districts’ efforts to address trafficking within schools.
Go to Sex Trafficking of Minors: How to Recognize and Respond to the Trafficking of Students

Human Trafficking in America’s Schools

Human trafficking currently is one of the world’s most profitable criminal enterprises. Trafficking is not only occurring overseas; it is occurring right here in the United States, with schools becoming a target area for recruitment. This pioneering guide, funded through the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Healthy Students, will help school officials understand how human trafficking impacts schools; recognize the indicators of possible child trafficking; and develop policies, protocols, and partnerships to address and prevent the exploitation of children.
Go to Human Trafficking in America’s Schools

Blue Campaign

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Blue Campaign is a public awareness campaign designed to recognize signs of human trafficking and respond to appropriate causes. The Back-to-School Safety webpage alerts parents, caretakers, educators, and youth professionals on risk factors to look for as the new school year begins. The webpage includes resources for students and adults that support open communication about trafficking to help spot and report warning signs. The College & University Toolkit is a companion resource that offers educators and college students tips and materials, including posters for dorms and community spaces to raise awareness of human trafficking on campus.

National Educators to Stop Trafficking (NEST)

NEST aims to serve as a comprehensive clearinghouse to empower and equip educators by providing youth-focused human trafficking prevention resources. NEST provides age-appropriate human trafficking prevention curricula with the goal of teaching youth how to avoid being trafficked, stand up for victims of trafficking, and spread the word in their communities so that sexual exploitation and human trafficking become a thing of the past.
Visit the National Educators to Stop Trafficking (NEST) website.

Polaris Project

Polaris Project operates the National Human Trafficking Hotline, a national, toll-free hotline, available to answer calls anywhere in the United States, 24-hours a day, 7 days a week (1-888-373-7888). Information and help provided through the helpline are confidential. The Polaris Project advocates for stronger federal and state laws, conducts training, and provides vital confidential services to victims of trafficking.  

• The Polaris Project’s Comprehensive Human Trafficking Assessment serves as a practical tool to help identify whether an individual may be a victim of human trafficking, which includes guidance on how to conduct an assessment, safety check guidelines, and specific assessment questions.
• View the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline Statistics for downloadable annual statistics reports related to hotline call trends and data analysis. 
• Download Polaris Project’s Tools for Educators, a practical reference guide for educators to support identifying warning signs of human trafficking, first response guidance, safety assessment questions, and hotline contact information.

Pretesting a Human Trafficking Screening Tool in the Child Welfare and Runaway and Homeless Youth Systems

Despite the fact that youth involved in the child welfare (CW) and runaway and homeless youth (RHY) systems are particularly vulnerable to being trafficked, there is no consensus screening tool to identify trafficking experiences among such youth. This study from the Urban Institute, developed a Human Trafficking Screening Tool (HTST) and pretested it with 617 RHY- and CW-involved youth. This research established that the screening tool is accessible to youth and easy to administer, and that both the full-length tool and a shorter version were effective in identifying youth who are trafficking victims in RHY and CW systems, though additional research with more youth is needed. 
Download Pretesting a Human Trafficking Screening Tool in the Child Welfare and Runaway and Homeless Youth Systems