3.22 Special Circumstance Intakes Involving Short Term Emergency Care (Human Trafficking)

Georgia State Seal

Georgia Division of Family and Children Services
Child Welfare Policy Manual

Chapter:

(3) Intake

Policy Title:

Special Circumstance Intakes Involving Short Term Emergency Care (Human Trafficking)

Policy Number:

3.22

Previous Policy Number(s):

3.9, 3.12

Effective Date:

December 2021

Manual Transmittal:

2021-06

Codes/References

O.C.G.A. § 15-11-130 Emergency Care and Supervision of Child Without Court Order; Immunity
O.C.G.A. § 15-11-130.1 Referral to Victim Assistance Organizations of Child Suspected of Being a Victim of Sexual Exploitation or Trafficking
O.C.G.A. § 16-5-46 Trafficking of Persons for Labor or Sexual Servitude
O.C.G.A. § 19-7-5 Reporting of Child Abuse
The Federal Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 (P.L. 106-386)

Requirements

The Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS) will:

  1. Receive intake reports of alleged child abuse involving requests for short term emergency care (STEC) when the child is a victim of human trafficking (labor or sexual servitude) and the circumstances are not expected to exceed seven calendar days and one of the following criteria is met:

    1. The child’s legal residence is outside of Georgia and contact with the state’s child welfare agency will be initiated for transfer of custody or contact has been made with the parent/guardian/legal custodian to regain physical custody of the child; or

    2. The child is a national of another country (someone other than a U.S. citizen or U.S. permanent or temporary legal resident alien) and contact will be initiated with the consulate where the child has citizenship to facilitate the child’s return to his/her country of origin; or

    3. There is concern that the child will return to the human trafficking situation and a secure facility is required and will be available within seven calendar days.

  2. Gather from the reporter the circumstances surrounding the STEC request.

  3. Screen-in Intake Assessments that meet the criteria for Special Circumstance Short Term Emergency Care Human Trafficking.

  4. Screen-out Intake Assessments when the information gathered does not meet the criteria for STEC Human Trafficking.

    Intake Assessments that do not meet the criteria for a Special Circumstance Human Trafficking shall be processed and assessed in accordance with policies 3.1 Intake: Receiving Intake Reports and 3.2 Intake: Making an Intake Decision.

  5. Notify the County Department of any assigned Special Circumstance STEC within two hours of receipt of the intake report.

Intake Assessments involving sex trafficking/sexual servitude that do not involve a request for STEC should be processed in accordance with policy 3.7 Intake: Intakes Involving Human Trafficking.

Procedures

Centralized Intake Specialist

  1. Complete the Intake Assessment information gathering process with the reporter as outlined in policy 3.1 Intake: Receiving Intake Reports. In addition, gather the following information from the reporter:

    1. What gives the reporter reason to suspect sex or labor trafficking?

    2. Does the child have an intimate relationship with someone around five years of age or older than the child? Are the child’s caregivers aware of this?

    3. Does the child have money or expensive new belongings the child claims are gifts?

    4. Does the child have tattoos or branding? Description of the tattoos.

    5. Are the child’s caregivers aware of the gifts or tattoos?

    6. Does the child have a history of runaway or truant behavior?

    7. Does the child have a history of substance abuse, sexualized behavior, changes in behavior or association with a different group of friends (possibly older)?

    8. Does the child lie about their identity or are they unable to provide evidence of a legal guardian?

    9. Does the child live with an employer or other “employees”?

    10. Is the child paid little or nothing for work or services provided?

    11. Has the child mentioned that “pay” goes toward a debt to “employer,” fees for travel, or housing provided by employer?

  2. Refer to the Human Trafficking Case Management Statewide Protocol for additional guidelines for intake reports involving human trafficking.

  3. Thoroughly evaluate all information gathered:

    1. Determine if the Intake Assessment meets the criteria for Special Circumstance Short Term Emergency Care Human Trafficking.

    2. Analyze DFCS history in accordance with policy 19.10 Case Management: Analyzing DFCS history.

  4. Input the Intake Assessment in Georgia SHINES using the guidelines in Georgia SHINES Job Aid Recording Safe Place for Newborns-Short-Term Emergency Care Intakes.

    1. Classify the Intake Assessment as a Special Circumstance Short Term Emergency Care Sexual Servitude/Human Trafficking.

    2. Indicate that a case involves known or suspected sex trafficking/sexual servitude by using the “Suspected Commercially Sexually Exploited” label on the Person Detail Page.

    3. Document the justification to support case assignment recommendation.

  5. Recommend the Intake Assessment is:

    1. Screened-in when the information gathered meets the criteria for a Special Circumstance Short Term Emergency Care Human Trafficking.

    2. Screened-out when the information gathered does not meet the criteria for a Special Circumstance Short Term Emergency Care Human Trafficking.

      Intake Assessments that do not meet the criteria for a Special Circumstance Human Trafficking shall be processed and assessed in accordance with policies 3.1 Intake: Receiving Intake Reports and 3.2 Intake: Making an Intake Decision.

  6. Participate in a supervisory staffing to discuss the intake disposition. Be prepared to discuss how the information gathered meets or does not meet the criteria for a Special Circumstance Short Term Emergency Care Human Trafficking.

  7. Notify the County Department’s CICC POC(s) of any assigned Special Circumstance Short Term Emergency Care Human Trafficking.

  8. Provide notification within 24 hours of the intake report of known or suspected victims of sex trafficking to:

    1. Law enforcement

    2. Care Coordination Treatment Unit (CCTU)

    3. Children’s Advocacy Centers of Georgia (CACGA)

  9. Submit the Intake Assessment to the Centralized Intake Specialist Supervisor for approval.

Centralized Intake Specialist Supervisor

  1. Thoroughly evaluate all information gathered and review the Intake Assessment in Georgia SHINES.

    1. Determine if the circumstances meets the criteria for Special Circumstance Short Term Emergency Care Human Trafficking.

    2. Verify the Intake Assessment is classified as a Special Circumstance Short Term Emergency Care Sexual Servitude/Human Trafficking.

    3. Document a justification to support the case assignment decision.

  2. Staff the Intake Assessment with the Centralized Intake Specialist in accordance with policy 19.6 Case Management: Supervisor Staffing.

  3. Screen-in the Intake Assessment when the information gathered meets the criteria for a Special Circumstance Short Term Emergency Care Human Trafficking.

    1. Stage progress the Intake Assessment to a Special Circumstance Short Term Emergency Care Sexual Servitude/Human Trafficking.

    2. Assign the Special Circumstance to the County Department’s CICC POC.

  4. Screen-out the Intake Assessment when the information gathered does not meet the criteria for Special Circumstance Short Term Emergency Care Human Trafficking.

    Intake Assessments that do not meet the criteria for a Special Circumstance Human Trafficking shall be processed and assessed in accordance with policies 3.1 Intake: Receiving Intake Reports and 3.2 Intake: Making an Intake Decision.

Practice Guidance

DFCS may use a STEC to support families when the child is a victim of labor or sex trafficking. When the child enters foster care through STEC, DFCS has the same rights and powers regarding the child(ren) as the parent, guardian or legal custodian, including the authority to consent to medical care. The parent, guardian or legal custodian has the right to have the child returned at any point during the seven-day STEC period.

Human Trafficking

Human trafficking involves the exploitation of people through force, coercion, threat, and deception and includes human rights abuses such as debt bondage, deprivation of liberty, and lack of control over freedom and labor. Trafficking can be for purposes of sexual exploitation or labor exploitation.

Sex Trafficking

Federal law defines sex trafficking as the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, obtaining, patronizing, or soliciting of a child for the purpose of a commercial sex act. “Severe form of [sex] trafficking in persons” means sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age.

Georgia law defines sexual servitude as any sexually explicit conduct or performance involving sexually explicit conduct for which anything of value is directly or indirectly given, promised to, or received by any individual, which conduct is induced or obtained:

  1. By coercion or deception;

  2. From an individual who is under the age of 18 years;

  3. From an individual whom the accused believes to be under the age of 18 years;

  4. From an individual who has a developmental disability; or

  5. From an individual whom the accused believes to have a developmental disability.

Labor Trafficking

Federal defines a “severe form of [labor] trafficking in persons” as the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services through the use of force, fraud, or coercion in order to subject that person to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage or slavery.

Georgia law states a person commits the offense of trafficking a person for labor servitude when that person knowingly subjects another person to or maintains another person in labor servitude or knowingly recruits, entices, harbors, transports, provides, or obtains by any means another person for the purpose of labor servitude.

Georgia defines labor servitude as work or service of economic or financial value which is performed or provided by another individual and is induced or obtained by coercion or deception. Types of labor exploitation include domestic servitude, restaurant work, janitorial work, sweatshop factory work, and migrant agricultural work.

Coercion

Federal law defines coercion as:

  1. Threats of serious harm to or physical restraint against any person;

  2. Any scheme, plan, or pattern intended to cause a person to believe that failure to perform an act would result in serious harm to or physical restraint against any person; or

  3. The abuse or threatened abuse of the legal process.

Georgia law defines coercion as:

  1. Causing or threatening to cause bodily harm to any individual, physically restraining or confining any individual, or threatening to physically restrain or confine any individual;

  2. Exposing or threatening to expose any fact or information or disseminating or threatening to disseminate any fact or information that would tend to subject an individual to criminal or immigration proceedings, hatred, contempt, or ridicule;

  3. Destroying, concealing, removing, confiscating, or possessing any actual or purported passport or other immigration document, or any other actual or purported government identification document, of any individual;

  4. Providing a controlled substance to such individual for the purpose of compelling such individual to engage in labor or sexual servitude against his or her will; or

  5. Causing or threatening to cause financial harm to any individual or using financial control over any individual.

Deception

  1. Creating or confirming another’s impression of an existing fact or past event which is false and which the accused knows or believes to be false;

  2. Maintaining the status or condition of an individual arising from a pledge by such individual of his or her personal services as security for a debt, if the value of those services as reasonably assessed is not applied toward the liquidation of the debt or the length and nature of those services are not respectively limited and defined, or preventing an individual from acquiring information pertinent to the disposition of such debt; or

  3. Promising benefits or the performance of services which the accused does not intend to deliver or perform or knows will not be delivered or performed. Evidence of failure to deliver benefits or perform services standing alone shall not be sufficient to authorize a conviction under this Code section.

Commercial Sex Act

The term "commercial sex act" means any sex act on account of which anything of value is given to or received by any person.

Debt Bondage

The term "debt bondage" means the status or condition of a debtor arising from a pledge by the debtor of his or her personal services or of those of a person under his or her control as a security for debt, if the value of those services as reasonably assessed is not applied toward the liquidation of the debt or the length and nature of those services are not respectively limited and defined.

Forms and Tools

Human Trafficking Case Management Statewide Protocol