States fail to protect foster kids from sex trafficking: Report

(NewsNation) — There’s a growing effort to better protect and support children placed in the foster care system who may be victims of human trafficking.

Federal law requires child welfare workers to screen children who return after going missing. However, a report from the Office of the Inspector General found no evidence that these screenings were being conducted in a majority of cases it selected for review across five states.

Melanie Thompson spent most of her childhood in the foster care system.

“I was trafficked here when I was 12 years old, and then I ended up getting arrested,” Thompson said. “Unfortunately, my first foster family put me back into the system of prostitution when I was 15. So the cycle kind of continued after that.”

Thompson said she left that home more than a dozen times, saying her foster family never reported her missing. When a caseworker dropped in, she said they never probed her about it.

“But all the while, I was here being trafficked and unhoused for many days or weeks at a time. [I was] more susceptible to traffickers because nobody on either side of my case decided to check in on me,” she said.

Thompson’s story may not be uncommon.

The July 2022 report found five states with the largest number of children in runaway status in the 2018 fiscal year and reviewed a random sample of more than 400 case files. According to the report, across Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Texas, there was no documented evidence of screening screening for abuse, assault or exploitation in 65% of the cases the OIG reviewed, even though federal law requires it.

“There’s not enough people in staff, there’s not enough people well trained. And so this process falls through the cracks or is not conducted correctly,” NewsNation law and justice contributor Jennifer Coffindaffer said.

NewsNation reached out to the states mentioned in the report. Some responded by sharing their improvements, and a Massachusetts spokesperson said their office did not agree with the OIG’s methodology for data collection.

Other states not listed in the report are also being proactive.

Earlier this year, the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services established a unit with specialized training: the Human Trafficking Response Team.

“We are developing a very thorough, in-depth training to have foster parents take to understand to try and recognize the signs of human trafficking,” said Kate Greer, the director of Tennessee’s Human Trafficking Response Team.

Survivors like Thompson think better training is critical because it can be tough for kids to speak out.

“The majority of us don’t know. I didn’t know what was happening to me when it was happening to me,” Thompson said.

She also wanted to share that there is hope for other survivors out there.

Now, Thompson has her bachelor’s degree and does advocacy work at a nonprofit. She said her mission is to help others like her.