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Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children

The Children’s Commission partners with many key stakeholders with a goal of preventing and addressing commercial sexual exploitation of children and youth in foster care. In addition to serving on the Texas Human Trafficking Prevention Task Force, the Commission also works with the Office of the Texas Governor’s Child Sex Trafficking Team, the DFPS Human Trafficking and Child Exploitation team, and the Office of Court Administration to develop strategies to improve judicial handling of child welfare cases where children or youth are at high risk of becoming trafficking victims. The Commission is focused primarily on providing information to judges and attorneys responsible for child welfare cases to raise awareness about human trafficking as it impacts children involved with the child welfare system. The Commission also participates in state and national trainings on human trafficking to stay informed about successful strategies to combat trafficking and develop expertise to relay information to judges and attorneys.

Please visit the Reports & Resources page for recent publications.

In 2021, the Commission held its first Commercial Sexual Exploitation Judicial Workgroup. The workgroup is comprised of judges from across the state. The workgroup’s purpose is to explore ways judicial leaders can be involved in discussions about prevention and identification of commercial sexual exploitation of children, particularly children within the child welfare system. The workgroup changed its original name from Human Trafficking Judicial Workgroup to Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children Judicial Workgroup in order to reflect the more commonly used verbiage used by others in the field.

Membership: Hon. Selina Mireles, Chair; Hon. Angela Ellis; Hon. Darlene Byrne; Hon. Renee Betancourt; Hon. Gary Coley; Hon. Delia Gonzales; Hon. Rob Hofmann; Hon. Ami Larson; Hon. Aurora Martinez-Jones; Hon. Leah Shapiro; Hon. Randy Shelton;  Hon. Thomas Stuckey; and Hon. Cyndi Wheless; Hon. Mandy White-Rogers.