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Congressional Research Service
Version 00 · Introduced in House · Feb 11, 2025
Human Trafficking and Exploitation Prevention Training Act
This bill establishes demonstration grants to train students, teachers, and school personnel how to better understand, recognize, prevent, and respond to human trafficking and the exploitation of children and youth. Eligible grantees include nonprofits, state and local educational agencies, and elementary and secondary schools.
The Office on Trafficking in Persons within the Administration for Children and Families must award the grants.
People & committees
Rep. Buchanan, Vern [R-FL-16] · R–FL
Legislative record
A procedural vote is different from passage. Passage in one chamber does not establish enactment. Explore the glossary.
Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Primary sources
Text links open the official source. We also preserved the text version used in the PlainBill explanation below.
No related bills are listed in this snapshot. This does not establish whether the proposal has appeared in earlier Congresses.
Source last updated: Oct 6, 2026. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
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PlainBill explanation
Based on the full Introduced in House · 2025-02-11 text. This explanation has not received human editorial review. This overview describes the proposal’s major provisions; it does not establish what its real-world effects would be.
The proposed Human Trafficking and Exploitation Prevention Training Act would create a federal demonstration project to train elementary and secondary school students, teachers, and staff to recognize, prevent, and respond to trafficking and exploitation of children and youth. Approved nonprofit organizations would supply curricula and training, and grants would support implementation. The bill would authorize $15 million annually for fiscal years 2026–2029, but that authorization would not itself provide the money.
This Act may be cited as the Human Trafficking and Exploitation Prevention Training Act.
shall carry out a demonstration project for training students, teachers, and school personnel at elementary schools and secondary schools to understand, recognize, prevent, and respond to signs of human trafficking and exploitation in children and youth.
the Director shall approve a list of nonprofit organizations as verified vendors— (i) to develop or make available curricula for the training described in paragraph (1); and (ii) to implement such training in accordance with such curricula.
the Director shall award grants to eligible entities to implement the training described in paragraph (1)
There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out subsection (j) $15,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2026 through 2029.
Section 2 presents congressional findings supporting the proposal. It describes training as valuable for identifying and preventing trafficking and exploitation. This is the bill's stated rationale, not evidence that the proposed project has produced those results.
2. Findings Congress finds the following:
Training students, teachers, and school personnel to understand, recognize, and respond to signs of human trafficking and exploitation in children and youth is invaluable in the effort to identify and prevent human trafficking and exploitation before it occurs.
Section 3 would add the project to section 582 of the Public Health Service Act. The Director of the Office on Trafficking in Persons within the Administration for Children and Families would be required to run it.
Section 582 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 290hh–1) is amended—
The Director of the Office on Trafficking in Persons of the Administration for Children and Families (in this subsection referred to as the Director) shall carry out a demonstration project
The Director would approve nonprofit organizations as training providers, called verified vendors. They would develop or supply curricula and deliver training using those curricula.
the Director shall approve a list of nonprofit organizations as verified vendors— (i) to develop or make available curricula for the training described in paragraph (1); and (ii) to implement such training in accordance with such curricula.
When approving providers, the Director would have to consider whether they involve trafficking survivors and federal, state, local, and Tribal partners in curriculum development. These are factors the Director must consider, rather than stated absolute eligibility requirements.
In approving vendors under this subsection, the Director shall give consideration to whether the nonprofit organization— (i) engages stakeholders, including survivors of human trafficking, and Federal, State, local, and Tribal partners, to develop the curricula;
Provider selection would also consider demonstrated expertise in curricula that suit students' ages and cultural backgrounds, are evidence based and validated by university research partners, include all children and kindergarten through grade 12, adapt to all regions, and use vetted materials tested over three successful years.
the Director shall give consideration to whether the nonprofit organization—
(ii) has a demonstrated expertise in— (I) developing human trafficking and exploitation prevention curricula for students, teachers, or school personnel in elementary school and secondary school that is— (aa) age-appropriate; (bb) culturally competent; (cc) evidence based; (dd) validated by university research partners; (ee) inclusive of K–12 students; (ff) adaptive to all regions; (gg) inclusive of all children; and (hh) based on vetted and proven materials that have been tested over a 3-year run of success;
The Director would also consider providers' expertise in teaching people to identify and respond to trafficking and in creating repeatable programs that train instructors to teach other instructors. Those programs would use appropriate technology, measurement, and training curricula.
the Director shall give consideration to whether the nonprofit organization—
(ii) has a demonstrated expertise in—
(II) training students, teachers, or school personnel in identification and proper response to human trafficking described in paragraph (1); and (III) creating a scalable, repeatable Train the Trainer program (defined as a program that trains instructors who can teach material to other instructors) that employs appropriate technology tools and methodologies, including measurement and training curricula.
Grants would fund training using approved providers' curricula. Eligible recipients would include nonprofits, elementary and secondary schools, and local and state education agencies. All grant funding would have to go to applicants serving kindergarten through grade 12 students.
the Director shall award grants to eligible entities to implement the training described in paragraph (1) in accordance with the curricula developed and made available by verified vendors pursuant to paragraph (3).
The Director shall ensure that all grant funds under this subsection are awarded to applicants who serve K–12 students.
the term eligible entity includes a nonprofit organization, an elementary school, a local educational agency, a secondary school, and a State educational agency.
The Director would consult specified Justice Department and Homeland Security officials to identify areas with the highest prevalence of reported trafficking involving children ages 5–17. Applicants located in or primarily serving those areas would receive grant priority.
consult with the Director of the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Administrator for the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Director of the Office for Victims of Crime, and the head of the Office of Partnership and Engagement of the Department of Homeland Security to identify the geographic areas in the United States with the highest prevalence of reported human trafficking instances for children, aged 5 through 17;
give priority to eligible entities located in, or primarily serving, one or more areas identified pursuant to clause (i) or (ii).
Grant priority would also cover applicants located in or primarily serving areas with the highest prevalence of at-risk, vulnerable, or underserved populations, including homeless youth, foster youth, youth in the child welfare system, and runaways. The Director would identify these areas through consultation, as appropriate, with the Education, Housing and Urban Development, and Labor secretaries and the Attorney General.
consult, as appropriate, with the Secretary of Education, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Secretary of Labor, and the Attorney General of the United States to identify the geographic areas in the United States with the highest prevalence of at risk, vulnerable, or underserved populations, including homeless youth, foster youth, youth involved in the child welfare system, and runaways;
give priority to eligible entities located in, or primarily serving, one or more areas identified pursuant to clause (i) or (ii).
The Director would help eligible grant applicants establish procedures for working with law enforcement to report and communicate with trafficking survivors and exploited children, and for referring them to appropriate social or survivor services.
assist entities that are eligible for grants under paragraph (4) in developing proper protocols and procedures to— (i) work with law enforcement to report, and facilitate communication with, human trafficking survivors and exploited children; and (ii) refer human trafficking survivors and exploited children to appropriate social or survivor service agencies or organizations.
The Director would develop a reliable method for providers and grantees to report counts and demographic information about identified and served trafficking survivors and students identified as at risk. Reporting would have to prevent disclosure of information identifying individual people and comply with applicable privacy laws and regulations.
develop a reliable methodology for vendors and grantees to collect, and report to the Director, in a manner that prevents disclosure of individually identifiable information consistent with all applicable privacy laws and regulations, data on the number of human trafficking survivors identified and served pursuant to this subsection, the number of students in elementary school or secondary school identified as being at risk of being trafficked or exploited, and the demographics of such survivors and students at risk;
Reports to Congress would cover grant recipients, schools establishing procedures, the number and geographic distribution of people trained, and survey results before and after training to assess understanding and recognition of trafficking and exploitation.
The Director shall collect, and report to the Congress, data on the following: (i) The total number of entities that received a grant under this subsection. (ii) The total number of elementary and secondary schools that established proper protocols and procedures through program development. (iii) The total number and geographic distribution of students, teachers, and school personnel trained pursuant to this subsection. (iv) The results of pretraining and posttraining surveys to gauge increased understanding and recognition of signs of human trafficking and exploitation in children and youth.
Congress would also receive counts of survivors and exploited children identified and served, counts of students identified as at risk, demographic information about these groups, and any best practices identified by grantees. The reports would have to protect information identifying individual people.
(v) The number of human trafficking survivors and exploited children identified and served by vendors and grantees under this subsection, excluding any individually identifiable information about such survivors and children. (vi) The number of students in elementary school or secondary school identified by vendors and grantees under this subsection as being at risk of being trafficked or exploited, excluding any individually identifiable information about such survivors. (vii) The demographics of human trafficking survivors, exploited children, and students at risk of being trafficked or exploited described in clauses (v) and (vi), excluding any individually identifiable information about such survivors, children, and students. (viii) Any best practices identified by the grantees under this subsection.
prepare and submit each such report in a manner that prevents the disclosure of individually identifiable information consistent with all applicable privacy laws and regulations.
The first report would be due within one year after enactment of the new subsection, with reports required annually afterward.
submit a report under subparagraph (A) not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this subsection and annually thereafter;
Covered school personnel would include school resource officers, nurses, counselors, principals, administrators, and other school leaders. The proposal would use definitions from the Elementary and Secondary Education Act for specified school and education-agency terms.
The terms elementary school, local educational agency, middle grades, secondary school, and State educational agency have the meanings given to those terms in section 8101 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.
The term school personnel includes school resource officers, school nurses, school counselors, school principals, school administrators, and other school leadership.
The bill would separate the project's funding authorization from the existing authorization for the rest of section 582. It would authorize Congress to provide $15 million for the project in each fiscal year from 2026 through 2029; actual funding would require an appropriation.
by striking There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section and inserting the following: (1) In general There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section (other than subsection (j))
(2) Demonstration project funding There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out subsection (j) $15,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2026 through 2029.
The supplied official-actions snapshot, updated October 6, 2026, records introduction in the House and referral to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on February 11, 2025.
Source snapshot updated 2026-10-06T16:28:39Z. 2025-02-11: Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. 2025-02-11: Introduced in House
A closer look
Reviewed version: Introduced in House · 2025-02-11. These findings describe provisions and who may benefit; they are not judgments of waste, corruption, or motive.
This review covers the supplied bill text. “None identified” does not rule out provisions in later versions or accompanying reports and disclosures.
Provisions outside the bill’s main subject, or policy changes attached to appropriations.
None identified in the reviewed text
No unrelated provision or policy rider attached to appropriations was identified in the complete supplied introduced text. This conclusion is limited to that version and does not establish absence in other versions or accompanying materials.
Spending directed to particular recipients or places outside ordinary competitive or formula-based allocation.
None identified in the reviewed text
No congressionally directed spending for a particular recipient or named place was identified in the complete supplied introduced text. This conclusion is limited to that version; the source set does not establish formal earmark status in accompanying materials.
Narrow exceptions, exemptions, or preferential treatment that warrant a closer look.
None identified in the reviewed text
No materially narrow special exemption, carve-out, or preferential benefit beyond the program's intended coverage and administration was identified in the complete supplied introduced text. This conclusion is limited to that version and does not establish absence in other versions or accompanying materials.
Full text preserved for this analysis. Legislative record snapshot: Oct 6, 2026. How PlainBill uses AI