Preventing Child Sex Trafficking and Improving Opportunities for Youth in Foster Care (H.R. 4058)
Do you support or oppose this bill?
What is H.R. 4058?
(Updated July 19, 2017)
This bill addresses sex trafficking and youth in foster care. According to the House Ways and Means Committee, the Act would:
Identify victims of child sex trafficking and determine appropriate services for the child.
-
States
must develop methods to screen and identify victims of child sex trafficking
and those who are at risk of becoming victims, including by demonstrating they
are providing relevant training for caseworkers.
-
States
must report children identified as victims of sex trafficking within 24 hours
to law enforcement authorities, report missing or abducted children for entry
into the National Crime Information Center at the FBI and to the National
Center for Missing and Exploited Children, describe how they will provide
services to victims (including how they coordinate efforts across agencies),
and make information on services available to the public.
-
States
must implement plans to rapidly locate a child missing from foster care, determine why
the child ran away from care, and determine whether the child was a victim of
sex trafficking while missing from care.
Improve data on child sex trafficking and services provided to victims.
- HHS [Health and Human Services] must report to Congress
information on children who run away from foster care, state efforts to provide
services to child victims of sex trafficking, and state efforts to ensure
children in foster care maintain long-lasting connections to caring adults.
-
States
must submit data on child sex trafficking victims through the existing data
system used to collect information on youth in foster care.
-
HHS
must report information on children living in group homes as part of the annual report
on outcomes for children in foster care.
Ensure youth in foster care can lead more normal lives as a way of preventing sex trafficking.
- States must implement a “reasonable and prudent parent”standard allowing foster
parents to make more day-to-day decisions for youth in their care (such as
allowing them to play sports or spend time with friends).
4. Ensure states do more to quickly move kids out of foster care and into loving families.
- For children under age
16, states could no longer designate long-term foster care as a goal for a child (a
status called “Another Planned Permanent Living Arrangement” or APPLA, which
indicates the state does not plan to return the child home or place them in an
adoptive home, with a relative, or with a legal guardian). For children age 16
and older who have long-term foster care as a goal, states must document
ongoing efforts to place children in a permanent home and explain why other
options are not in the best interests of the child.
Argument in favor
Improves foster care services, bolsters attempts in getting children out of foster care, aids in preventing child sex trafficking, and improves data on such trafficking.
Argument opposed
Fails to provide foster children with identity essentials, including a birth certificate, Social Security card, and drivers license.
Impact
If enacted, the bill would provide better oversight of child sex trafficking data by Congress, give foster care youth more say in creating their case plans, and give foster parents more say in the day-to-day activities of those youth in their care.
Cost of H.R. 4058
The CBO estimates that enacting the bill would increase direct spending by $3 million over the 2014-2024 period.
Additional Info
Of Note:
-According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, of the children reported missing who are also likely sex trafficking victims, 60 percent were in foster care or group homes when they ran away.
-The U.S. Department of Justice reports that between 2008-2010, 83 percent of sex trafficking victims found within the United States were U.S. citizens and 40 percent of sex trafficking cases involved the sexual exploitation of children.
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