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abuse and neglect” to cover a child subjected to unlawful sexual behavior. The Children’s Code is cross-referenced to Colorado’s Sex Offender Registration Act to define “unlawful sexual behavior,” which includes “human trafficking of a minor for sexual servitude,” “sexual exploitation of children,” “procurement of a child for sexual exploitation” and “inducement of prostitution.” 47 “Reporters” is broadly defined to include not only physicians but health care workers, school officials and teachers, social workers, licensed counselors and therapists, department of human services workers, coaches, and emergency medical services (EMS) personnel among many others.48 Colorado makes reporting mandatory when there is “reasonable cause to know or suspect . . . abuse or neglect” of a child under 18.49 An oral report must be made to the county department, local law enforcement, or the child abuse hotline, followed “promptly” by a written report.50 The county department must notify law enforcement and the district attorney.51 The county department must also submit a report to the state department within 60 days.52 Massachusetts parallels Colorado’s language insofar as it broadly defines reporters and triggers upon “reasonable cause to believe that a child is suffering physical or emotional injury” resulting from being “sexually exploited” or a “human trafficking victim.” 53 But Massachusetts has two novel provisions. One protects reporters from workplace retaliation for having reported in good faith.54 The other requires that the Department of Children and Families give written notice to the reporter within 30 days of the outcome of the report and any services provided to the victim.55 What gets reported States with trafficking reporting laws typically require similar kinds of information from the reporter (see Table 3), such as the following: ● Names and addresses of the child and the child’s parents or caretakers; ● Child’s age; ● Nature and extent of the abuse, including any evidence of previous abuse; ● Name and address of the school that the child attends or last attended; ● Names of the persons apparently responsible for the abuse or neglect; ● Family composition, including names, ages, sexes, and races of other children in the home; Table 4. (Continued). State Who Reports Maryland Health practitioner (i.e., anyone authorized to practice healing); police officer; teacher; counselor; social worker; caseworker; and probation or parole officer. Massachusetts A physician, medical intern, hospital personnel engaged in the examination, care, or treatment of persons, medical examiner, psychologist, emergency medical technician, dentist, nurse, chiropractor, podiatrist, optometrist, osteopath, allied mental health and human services professional, drug and alcoholism counselor, psychiatrist or clinical social worker; a public or private school teacher, educational administrator, guidance or family counselor, child care worker, person paid to care for or work with a child in any public or private facility, or home or program that provides child care or residential services to children or that provides the services of child care resource and referral agencies, voucher management agencies or family child care systems or child care food programs, licensor of the department of early education and care or school attendance officer; a probation officer, clerk-magistrate of a district court, parole officer, social worker, foster parent, firefighter, police officer; a priest, rabbi, clergy member, ordained or licensed minister, leader of any church or religious body, accredited Christian Science practitioner, person performing official duties on behalf of a church or religious body, or person employed by a church or religious body to supervise, educate, coach, train or counsel a child on a regular basis; any person in charge of a medical or other public or private institution, school or facility or that person’s designated agent; or the child advocate. North Carolina Any person or institution who has cause to suspect abuse or neglect. JOURNAL OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING 125 ● Actions taken by the reporting source, including taking photographs and x-rays, placing the child in temporary protective custody, or notifying the medical examiner or coroner. At least five states (CO, FL, IL, MA, NC) expressly call for the name of the reporter.56 In North Carolina, the reporter must provide a name if reporting orally or by telephone, but declining to state their name will not impede the local department of social services from investigating the report.57 Massachusetts provides that photographs of the child’s injuries may be taken without permission of the child’s parents or guardians.58 Massachusetts also provides that if hospital personnel collect physical evidence of abuse or neglect, then law enforcement, the local district attorney, and the Department of Children and Families are to be notified immediately.59 Where reports are sent Most commonly, reports are made to the Department of Children and Family Services or the Department of Human Services. The department or agency receiving the report must usually, in turn, report the suspected abuse to local law enforcement and/or the district attorney.60 Some states allow for reports to be made directly to law enforcement61 (see Table 3). State-mandated data collection The collection of uniform and high-quality data is essential for assessing whether new laws aimed at health care providers and other professionals are achieving their goals of identifying more victims of trafficking and securing effective services to aid in their rehabilitation. Most, but not all, of the 17 states with education and/or reporting laws related to human trafficking provide for some form of data collection. Six states are silent on the topic (MD, MA, MO, NJ, NC, WA).62 Of the remaining 11, eight states tie data collection to their education laws63 and three to their reporting laws64 (see Table 5). All of the 11 states that legislate data collection assign responsibility to either a humantrafficking council or commission (CO, MI, MN, TX)65 or a state agency (CA, KS, TN, VT, LA, IL, FL).66 There is no consensus on what gets collected, how to collect the data, where to keep it, or what to do with it.67 Illinois calls for a “central register” of all child abuse and neglect cases, kept in such a way as to enable the Department of Children and Family Services (a) to “immediately identify and locate prior reports,” (b) to “continuously monitor” all reports where services were provided, and (c) to “regularly evaluate the effectiveness of existing laws and programs.” 68 Texas, emphasizing law enforcement and prosecution of traffickers, is particularly detailed in describing the data that should be collected, including the following: (a) number of convictions, arrests, and prosecutions, and even investigations of traffickers and forgery offenses as part of trafficking; (b) demographics of convicted traffickers and the victims; (c) geographic routes of trafficking; (d) means of transportation and methods for trafficking; and (e) social and economic factors creating a demand for trafficking.69 While lacking the detail of Texas, Florida specifies that record collection is only for law-enforcement and prosecutorial purposes.70 As far as to whom these collectors of data then report, the most common audience is the state judiciary committee.71 Reports, usually on an annual basis, may also be directed to the governor, the legislature, an appointed committee (such as committees on health and welfare, criminal justice, or human services), or some combination thereof.72 Annual reporting is typically directed to cover victim identification, location and types of services offered, number of persons served, education provided, and costs of implementation. Minnesota’s education law uniquely guides the Director of Child Sex Trafficking Prevention to collect data not for the legislature or government but rather to promote a system for sharing data among regional and community advocates.73 Michigan has grappled specifically with the issue of data collection regarding human trafficking. Mandated by law, the human-trafficking commission must file an annual report with the governor, the secretary of the Senate, and the clerk of the House of Representatives regarding trafficking in the 126 H. G. ATKINSON ET AL. state. In the Michigan Commission on Human Trafficking’s 2013 Report on Human Trafficking, the Data Collection Subcommittee (DCS)74 noted that there are four primary obstacles to data collection: “underreporting [of the crime]; lack of uniform data reporting; lack of data sharing; and lack of quality data” (Michigan Commission on Human Trafficking, 2013, p. 20). In its recommendations to the governor and legislature, the human-trafficking commission and DCS called