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Committee endorses bill to add human‑trafficking education at public colleges
Summary
House Bill 538 would direct public institutions of higher education to offer voluntary human‑trafficking prevention and exploitation education for first‑year students; the committee voted to report the bill after sponsors described bipartisan support and collaboration with higher‑education leaders.
The House Education Committee reported House Bill 538, which would direct public institutions of higher education to provide first‑year students the opportunity to attend one of three on‑campus, voluntary trafficking and exploitation prevention and education programs.
Representative Ledbetter, the bill sponsor, said the legislation is a reintroduction of an earlier bipartisan measure and is intended to expand existing campus prevention and response programs to include information on human trafficking. Ledbetter told the committee that Pennsylvania ranked ninth nationally for new human‑trafficking cases in 2024 (as reported by the National Human Trafficking Hotline) and described the bill as a measured, collaborative step to add trafficking content to campus programs.
Committee members expressed support and cited the region's trafficking corridors and prior bipartisan work on related bills. The sponsor described the bill as voluntary for institutions and framed it as one element of a broader anti‑trafficking strategy. The committee recorded a unanimous committee vote and reported the bill as committed for further consideration.
Why it matters: supporters said expanding campus prevention programming to cover human trafficking would inform incoming students about risks and campus resources and complement broader anti‑trafficking efforts in the Commonwealth. The bill does not mandate specific curriculum content beyond requiring institutions to offer the opportunity to attend an approved program; implementation details and program selection would be determined by the institutions if the bill advances.
