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Districts and states describe practical strategies and hurdles in school prevention programs
Summary
Practitioners from Milwaukee, El Paso and West Virginia shared curriculum choices, consent strategies, partnerships, and recruitment approaches — highlighting opt‑out vs opt‑in consent, the importance of administrative buy‑in and cross‑sector task forces for sustainability.
Speakers from multiple grant recipients described how local context, consent rules and partnerships shape prevention education in schools.
Jessica Goodman Schutz, human trafficking prevention coordinator for Milwaukee Public Schools, said her district chose Love146’s Not a Number curriculum and is using trained support staff (social workers, counselors) to deliver lessons to eighth graders. Goodman said the district has implemented the curriculum across cohorts of 16–20 schools per year, is using a passive (opt‑out) caregiver consent model for students, and reported more than 4,500 students reached so far and 130 certified facilitators.
Goodman said school‑embedded protocols and partnerships were critical: Milwaukee uses a district Human Trafficking School Safety Protocol and is collocated with a Family Justice Center (She named the Sojourner Family Peace Center) to coordinate investigations and supports. She shared a case in which a student disclosed abuse on a curriculum note card, leading to timely reporting, a forensic interview and connection with community services.
Jessica Barela (registered nurse, Education Service Center Region 19, El Paso) described a train‑the‑trainer model including three registered nurses and a counselor, partnerships with 3 Strands Global Foundation and regional districts, and Texas’s statutory requirements that school staff receive training on child abuse and human trafficking. Barela said Texas uses an opt‑in parental consent approach for student delivery and reported training about 3,000 district staff, roughly 2,500 students and outreach to about 4,550 community members.
Nancy Hoffman (state coordinator, West Virginia) urged multi‑sector responses: her state formed a statewide human trafficking task force, required human‑trafficking assistance notices in public places, and pursued legislation to implement screening questions for children in foster care. She said the opioid epidemic in West Virginia produced co‑occurring harms, including increases in familial trafficking, and that prevention work required concurrent policy, service expansion and public awareness efforts.
Why it matters: implementers emphasized that program design must match local legal requirements and that sustainability depends on administrative buy‑in, task‑force partnerships, training capacity and clear referral protocols.
What happens next: panelists recommended building champions, using joint protocols or MOUs with child welfare and law enforcement, and embedding prevention work in existing multidisciplinary systems.
