A roundup of some of The Imprint’s most impactful stories in 2020.
California is ramping up a $140 million plan to screen many of the state’s children for adverse childhood experiences, often referred to as ACES. The idea was borne of a landmark study from the 1990s that traced several negative life outcomes in adulthood to trauma endured in childhood.
But many trauma experts and leading researchers in the field say that taking an epidemiological tool like ACES and using it to screen children for risk is a flawed concept. And some worry that the screens could unnecessarily draw parents into the sphere of the child welfare system.