34 U.S.C. § 20705a — Enhancing the ability of State, local, and Tribal child welfare agencies to identify and respond to children who are, or are at risk of being, victims of trafficking

(a) Grants to enhance child welfare services. The Secretary of Health and Human Services may give grants to eligible states. States use the money to build or improve programs. These programs help state, local, or tribal child welfare agencies find and respond to two groups of children: (1) children counted as victims of "child abuse and neglect" and "sexual abuse" under another law, because they are victims or at risk of being victims of a severe form of trafficking; and (2) children the agency is already responsible for placing, caring for, or supervising, when there is reasonable cause to believe they are, or are at risk of being, a victim of one or more severe forms of trafficking. (b) Definitions. (1) Child. A "child" is someone under 18, or older if the state has chosen an older age under the Social Security Act. A state can choose to cover people up to age 26 if it wants. (2) Eligible state. A state is "eligible" if it has not already gotten more than 3 grants under this section, and it meets at least one of these: (A) The state has dropped, or will drop, any rule requiring proof of a controlling third party before a child counts as a trafficking victim for child welfare services. (B) The state treats a child as a trafficking victim whenever the child is a victim of a severe form of trafficking, using the definition in another law (22 U.S.C. § 7102(11)(A)). (C) The state agency that runs the state's foster care and adoption assistance plan has built, or will build, protocols that meet three reporting deadlines: (i) report a child identified as a severe trafficking victim to law enforcement within 24 hours of learning about it; (ii) report a missing or abducted child — including a "runaway" — to law enforcement within 24 hours, so it reaches the FBI's National Crime Information Center and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children; and (iii) report to the Secretary of Health and Human Services the total number of children who are victims of child human trafficking. (D) The state has built, or will build, a special protocol for responding to a child trafficking victim. The protocol must focus on the child's specific safety needs, and must include a separate way to investigate cases where the accused trafficker is not the child's parent or caregiver — one that does not force the case through the usual process for other abuse or neglect, which normally requires filing an abuse or neglect petition. (3) Indian tribe; tribal organization. These terms mean the same as they do in 25 U.S.C. § 5304. (4) State. "State" means each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands. It also includes an Indian tribe, tribal organization, or tribal consortium that has an approved foster care plan under the Social Security Act, or that gets funding to provide foster care under a cooperative agreement or contract with a state.