HB1043: HB1043 Georgia Trauma Informed Child and Youth Trafficking Response Act; enact

Georgia currently has no unified state-wide system for responding to child and youth trafficking, and survivors often move through hospitals, schools, the Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS), law enforcement, and courts without coordination. This bill would add a new section to Georgia's kidnapping and false imprisonment law (O.C.G.A. § 16-5-48) creating the Georgia Child and Youth Trafficking Care Coordination Office inside the Department of Human Services. The office would run a state-wide hotline, assign regional navigators, and set up multidisciplinary teams (groups combining DFCS, police, prosecutors, courts, hospitals, and schools) in every region. Hospitals, schools, counties, and cities would have to adopt written trauma-informed protocols and designate local coordinators. The bill treats trafficking by a family member as aggravated child abuse, bars prosecution of trafficked children, and requires an annual report to the Governor and legislative leaders. It would take effect July 1, 2026.

• Creates the Georgia Child and Youth Trafficking Care Coordination Office within the Department of Human Services to run a hotline, assign regional navigators, and coordinate victim services statewide.
• Requires hospitals, urgent care centers, and inpatient facilities to adopt written trauma-informed protocols, including private screenings and bans on contacting police to arrest a child victim.
• Classifies trafficking committed by a parent, guardian, or caregiver's partner as aggravated child abuse and allows DFCS to order emergency removal of the child.
• Bars courts from ordering family reunification without clear and convincing evidence of safety, and bars prosecution of child victims for offenses tied to their trafficking.
• Requires counties, municipalities, and local school boards to adopt aligned trafficking response protocols, designate local coordinators, and train staff.
• Requires the Department of Human Services to submit an annual report on referrals, familial trafficking data, and compliance to the Governor and legislative leaders by December 31 each year.

Child and youth trafficking survivors, hospitals and emergency room staff, public school boards, counselors and social workers, DFCS caseworkers, law enforcement, county and municipal governments, courts, and the Department of Human Services, which would run the new statewide office.

Families and survivors would gain a single statewide hotline and coordinated regional teams instead of navigating disconnected agencies, hospitals would face new protocol and training duties, and courts and DFCS would apply new standards before returning a child to a trafficking-involved family.

• Section 3 adds O.C.G.A. § 16-5-48, defining terms such as familial trafficking, multidisciplinary team, regional navigator, and trauma informed approach.
• Subsection (b) creates the Georgia Child and Youth Trafficking Care Coordination Office, subject to appropriations, to run a hotline, coordinate care, and maintain a statewide data system.
• Subsection (c) and (d) require regional navigators and at least one multidisciplinary team per region to coordinate investigations and service plans.
• Subsection (f) classifies familial trafficking as aggravated child abuse, allows emergency removal, and requires clear and convincing evidence of safety before reunification.
• Subsection (g) bars prosecuting child trafficking victims for offenses resulting from their trafficking.
• Subsections (h) through (j) require designated healthcare facilities, local governments, and school boards to adopt trauma informed protocols and training.
• Subsection (l) and (m) require an annual report on referrals, familial trafficking data, and compliance submitted to the Governor and legislative leaders by December 31.
• Section 4 sets the effective date as July 1, 2026.

1. 2026-01-29House Second Readers (House)
2. 2026-01-28House First Readers (House)
3. 2026-01-27House Hopper (House)

• Sandra Scott (D, HD-076)Primary sponsor
• Kim Schofield (D, HD-063)
• Viola Davis (D, HD-087)
• Debra Bazemore (D, HD-069)
• Kimberly Alexander (D, HD-066)
• Rhonda Taylor (D, HD-092)

• human trafficking
• child welfare
• hospital protocols
• school policy
• juvenile justice