Back-to-School Safety

Protect Youth From Traffickers This School Year

The start of a new school year is a time of renewed structure for families. It’s also a time when children may feel overwhelmed, isolated, or unseen—conditions that traffickers often exploit. As students return to school, it’s critical to recognize that human traffickers often take advantage of periods of transition and changes in routine. Parents, caretakers, educators, and youth professionals play a vital role in identifying and reporting the signs of trafficking. Take the time to reestablish open lines of communication with the children in your life and make trafficking prevention a part of your daily conversations. Small, consistent check-ins can make a big difference. By staying alert and informed, you can help protect children from exploitation.

Traffickers often look for vulnerabilities during everyday moments:

• The walk home from school
• The wait at the bus stop
• After-school activities
• Time spent online

These seemingly ordinary parts of a child’s day can become opportunities for traffickers to make contact. As children adjust to new schedules and environments, traffickers may look for cracks in routines or signs of isolation.