
Since 2020, the U.S. Department of Education has conducted a webinar series to address child and youth trafficking in America’s schools. This year, the Human Trafficking webinar series has been expanded to also address child exploitation. Now the series draws attention to the important efforts underway in our nation’s education community to address sex and labor trafficking, and exploitation.
On behalf of the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education’s Office of Safe and Supportive Schools and the Department of Labor (DOL), the National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments (NCSSLE) invites you to join the latest webinar in this updated series, Understanding Child Labor Exploitation in the U.S. and How Schools Can Help Address It.
Wednesday, November 15, 2023
3:00 – 4:30 pm EST
Child labor exploitation is increasing nationwide; since 2019, the DOL has seen an 88% increase in children being employed illegally by companies in the U.S. Earlier this year, DOL and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced new efforts to combat exploitative child labor practices, including an Interagency Taskforce to Combat Child Labor Exploitation that includes eight federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Education.
In this webinar, the DOL defined and discussed what child labor exploitation looks like in the U.S. and the ways that schools can help address it. Experts from the DOL presented an overview of child labor laws and information on the types of cases they are seeing, including young people working in dangerous jobs. Educators and school staff can provide important information to students about their workplace rights and can be the first adults to be concerned about a youth being exploited in a work situation, so the webinar highlighted what roles schools have in identifying and reporting potential child labor violations. The webinar also included a panel discussion to better understand the experiences of youth who have been exploited in a work environment and to highlight a partnership between DOL and a Georgia school district. We ended the webinar with a live Q&A where we responded to questions related to child labor exploitation and how schools can play a role in addressing it.
Speakers
- Ashley Allen Feliciano, Assistant District Director, Southeast Regional Initiative Team Lead for Child Labor, U.S. Department of Labor
- Sirena Bazile-Cox, Senior Advisor, Office of Policy, U.S. Department of Labor
- Bridget Dutton, Program Specialist, Wage and Hour Division, U.S. Department of Labor
- Norma Flores Lopez, Chair, Child Labor Coalition’s Domestic Issues Committee, Lived Experience Expert
- Jessica Looman, Administrator, Wage and Hour Division, U.S. Department of Labor
- Mark Whitlock, Chief Executive Officer, Central Educational Center (CEC), GA
Webinar Materials
Resources
Related Previous Human Trafficking Webinars
- August 17, 2022 - Preventing and Intervening in the Labor Trafficking of Students
- April 19, 2023 - Forced Criminality in Human Trafficking: Identifying and Intervening to Support Students
Human Trafficking in America's Schools
- Human Trafficking in America’s Schools: What Schools can Do to Prevent, Respond, and Help Students to Recover from Human Trafficking
- Addressing the Growing Problem of Domestic Sex Trafficking on Minors Through PBIS
- How Schools Can Combat Human Trafficking in Partnership With People With Lived Experience
- Human Trafficking in America’s Schools Staff Development Series
- NCSSLE Human Trafficking webpage
- US Department of ED Human Trafficking webpage
Department of Labor Resources
- Youth Rules Website
- Child Labor Flyer
- Fact Sheet 43: Child Labor Non Agriculture
- Fact Sheet 34: Child Labor Motor Vehicles
- Fact Sheet 57: Child Labor Balers & Compactors
- Fact Sheet 40: Child Labor Farms
- Fact Sheet 44: Visits to Employers
- How to File a Complaint
More Information
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. To offer questions for consideration by the speakers on this webinar, email them to ncssle@air.org with “Webinar Question” in the subject line.