California Adds Human Trafficking Prevention Training to its 7–12 Grade Curriculum: Should Other States Follow?

Abstract

In 2017 the California Legislature, recognizing the efficacy of education as a trafficking prevention tool, enacted the first state law in the Union mandating anti-trafficking education in the 7th through 12th grade public school curriculum. Set against the backdrop of Congress’ Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, this article examines federal anti-trafficking laws and California’s landmark enactment of its Human Trafficking Prevention Education and Training Act of 2017. Prior to the enactment of this law several California schools located in “high intensity child prostitution” areas implemented anti-trafficking curriculum and found that educating children was a neccessary preventative measure. Congress, through the Department of Education (ED), and now, the California Legislature through the California Department of Education, have developed policy and enacted legislation to emplace anti-trafficking in the school curriculum. In 2015, the ED commissioned a study to help school officials create proper school responses and protocols upon victim identification. The study emphasizes the importance of educators’ ability to discern problematic behaviors as possible symptoms of abuse and victimization (US ED OSHS, 2015). Human trafficking of US school children occurs in all 50 states. It is time for other jurisdictions to consider the efficacy of anti-trafficking education legislation in the public school curriculum.