Human Trafficking Webinar Series: Preventing and Intervening in the Labor Trafficking of Students

Human Trafficking Webinar Series: Preventing and Intervening in the Labor Trafficking of Students

A national webinar hosted by the U.S. Department of Education

Since 2020, the U.S. Department of Education has conducted a webinar series to address the growing response of America’s schools to child trafficking. The series draws attention to the important efforts underway in our nation’s education community to address both sex and labor trafficking.

On behalf of the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education’s Office of Safe and Supportive Schools, the National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments (NCSSLE) invites you to join the next webinar in this series, Preventing and Intervening in the Labor Trafficking of Students.

Date: Wednesday, August 17, 2022

Time: 3:00-4:15 pm EST

In the United States, the primary job of school-aged young people is that of student, but this is not the case for all our young people. In 2021, the International Labor Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund estimated that global child labor, including child labor trafficking, rose from 152 million in 2016 to 160 million children in 2020 (International Labor Organization and United Nations Children’s Fund, 2021). Child labor trafficking doesn’t just happen in other countries, it also takes place here in the United States. Students who are forced to work long hours, often before they can complete schoolwork, or in dangerous jobs are less equipped to achieve in school given the trauma of their forced labor. In this webinar, we will explore what labor trafficking looks like in the United States and talk to subject matter experts, individuals with lived experience, and practitioners about how you can support students who are involved in labor trafficking. 

Speakers include:

• Ruth Ryder, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, U.S. Department of Education

• Katherine Kaufka Walts, Director, Center for Human Rights of Children, Loyola University, Chicago, IL

• Sheri Lochridge Combs, Senior Program Manager, Human Trafficking Special Populations, Covenant House New Orleans, LA

• Yuri Guerrero, Lived Experience Expert and Advocate, TX

Registration:

To register for this webinar, go here. To offer questions for consideration by the speakers on this webinar, email them to ncssle@air.org with “Webinar Question” in the subject line. Please note this webinar will be recorded and posted to the event page here. 

For more information and resources, visit the following webpages dedicated to human trafficking: ED’s Human Trafficking webpage; the U.S. Department of State’s Human Trafficking webpage; and the Administration for Children and Families’ Office of Trafficking Persons’ webpage.  To view previous webinars in this series, go here.

For questions about this webinar, email NCSSLE@air.org.