{"id":{"repo_id":"ku","oai_identifier":"oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/39172"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/ku/oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/39172","repository":{"repo_id":"ku","name":"University of Kansas","base_url":"https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/server/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Implementation of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Screening in a Midwestern Elementary School","abstract":"Background: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are stressful events experienced during childhood that negatively affect children’s physical and mental health, social development, and educational achievements. Early identification and interventions for children who have experienced negative impacts from ACEs could offer substantial benefits, but despite recommendations for ACEs screening in primary care, many affected children go undetected. School-age children spend about 180 days in school each year, and the school setting may be an ideal place to identify children at risk from ACEs. School nurses and other personnel including teachers, counselors, social workers, and psychologists are well-suited to screen for ACEs and provide interventions to help reduce and mitigate the harmful effects of ACEs, however, screening for ACEs in schools has not been widely implemented. The purpose of this quality-improvement, evidence-implementation project was to pilot-test the implementation of ACEs screening as part of the health history intake process in a low-income elementary school in a suburban Midwestern city.Methods: The Pediatric ACEs and Related Life Events Screener (PEARLS) was embedded into a newly designed health history (HH) form. Parents enrolling kindergarten students at the school for the 2020-2021 school year were asked to complete the new form. An introductory letter was included, and parents were asked to provide feedback of the new HH form via a short post-survey. Parents of students with an ACE score of 4 or higher were considered at risk and were contacted by the project leader for further evaluation and referral as needed. Results: Of the health history forms that were returned by parents, 81% of parents completed the PEARLS portion of the form. The PEARLS screenings indicated that 33% of kindergarten children had an ACE score of 1 or more, and 9.5% of children had an ACE score greater than 4 prior to enrollment. The project leader contacted 26% of parents who completed the HH form and 15% were referred for additional evaluation. Parental perception of the health history form was generally positive, but several parents reported concerns (e.g. fear of mandatory reporting) regarding completing the PEARLS tool. Conclusions: Screening for ACEs can be accomplished in the school setting using the PEARLS as part of the student health history intake process. Further projects are needed to determine how to best engage and educate families regarding ACEs and their effects on children’s health and school achievement.","abstract_html":"Background: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are stressful events experienced during childhood that negatively affect children’s physical and mental health, social development, and educational achievements. Early identification and interventions for children who have experienced negative impacts from ACEs could offer substantial benefits, but despite recommendations for ACEs screening in primary care, many affected children go undetected. School-age children spend about 180 days in school each year, and the school setting may be an ideal place to identify children at risk from ACEs. School nurses and other personnel including teachers, counselors, social workers, and psychologists are well-suited to screen for ACEs and provide interventions to help reduce and mitigate the harmful effects of ACEs, however, screening for ACEs in schools has not been widely implemented. The purpose of this quality-improvement, evidence-implementation project was to pilot-test the implementation of ACEs screening as part of the health history intake process in a low-income elementary school in a suburban Midwestern city.Methods: The Pediatric ACEs and Related Life Events Screener (PEARLS) was embedded into a newly designed health history (HH) form. Parents enrolling kindergarten students at the school for the 2020-2021 school year were asked to complete the new form. An introductory letter was included, and parents were asked to provide feedback of the new HH form via a short post-survey. Parents of students with an ACE score of 4 or higher were considered at risk and were contacted by the project leader for further evaluation and referral as needed. Results: Of the health history forms that were returned by parents, 81% of parents completed the PEARLS portion of the form. The PEARLS screenings indicated that 33% of kindergarten children had an ACE score of 1 or more, and 9.5% of children had an ACE score greater than 4 prior to enrollment. The project leader contacted 26% of parents who completed the HH form and 15% were referred for additional evaluation. Parental perception of the health history form was generally positive, but several parents reported concerns (e.g. fear of mandatory reporting) regarding completing the PEARLS tool. Conclusions: Screening for ACEs can be accomplished in the school setting using the PEARLS as part of the student health history intake process. Further projects are needed to determine how to best engage and educate families regarding ACEs and their effects on children’s health and school achievement.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Gilliland, Sarah L."],"institution":"University of Kansas","degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Peltzer, Jill"],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2021,"date_issued":"2021-01-01","date_published":"2021-01-01","updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:46:17Z","subjects":["Nursing"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright held by the author."],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.other","label":"Dc Identifier Other","values":["http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:17643"],"render_values":[{"text":"http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:17643","href":"http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:17643","code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/1808/39172","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.uri"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Peltzer, Jill"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Gilliland, Sarah L."]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.accessioned","label":"Dc Date Accessioned","values":["2026-04-25T04:21:16Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2026-04-25T04:21:16Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2021-01-01"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["University of Kansas"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Dissertation"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Nursing"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language.iso","label":"Language (ISO)","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright held by the author."]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.other","label":"Dc Identifier Other","values":["http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:17643"]},{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["https://hdl.handle.net/1808/39172"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Background: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are stressful events experienced during childhood that negatively affect children’s physical and mental health, social development, and educational achievements. Early identification and interventions for children who have experienced negative impacts from ACEs could offer substantial benefits, but despite recommendations for ACEs screening in primary care, many affected children go undetected. School-age children spend about 180 days in school each year, and the school setting may be an ideal place to identify children at risk from ACEs. School nurses and other personnel including teachers, counselors, social workers, and psychologists are well-suited to screen for ACEs and provide interventions to help reduce and mitigate the harmful effects of ACEs, however, screening for ACEs in schools has not been widely implemented. The purpose of this quality-improvement, evidence-implementation project was to pilot-test the implementation of ACEs screening as part of the health history intake process in a low-income elementary school in a suburban Midwestern city.Methods: The Pediatric ACEs and Related Life Events Screener (PEARLS) was embedded into a newly designed health history (HH) form. Parents enrolling kindergarten students at the school for the 2020-2021 school year were asked to complete the new form. An introductory letter was included, and parents were asked to provide feedback of the new HH form via a short post-survey. Parents of students with an ACE score of 4 or higher were considered at risk and were contacted by the project leader for further evaluation and referral as needed. Results: Of the health history forms that were returned by parents, 81% of parents completed the PEARLS portion of the form. The PEARLS screenings indicated that 33% of kindergarten children had an ACE score of 1 or more, and 9.5% of children had an ACE score greater than 4 prior to enrollment. The project leader contacted 26% of parents who completed the HH form and 15% were referred for additional evaluation. Parental perception of the health history form was generally positive, but several parents reported concerns (e.g. fear of mandatory reporting) regarding completing the PEARLS tool. Conclusions: Screening for ACEs can be accomplished in the school setting using the PEARLS as part of the student health history intake process. Further projects are needed to determine how to best engage and educate families regarding ACEs and their effects on children’s health and school achievement."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Implementation of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Screening in a Midwestern Elementary School"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["Peltzer, Jill"],"dc:creator":["Gilliland, Sarah L."],"dc:date.accessioned":["2026-04-25T04:21:16Z"],"dc:date.available":["2026-04-25T04:21:16Z"],"dc:date.issued":["2021-01-01"],"dc:description.abstract":["Background: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are stressful events experienced during childhood that negatively affect children’s physical and mental health, social development, and educational achievements. Early identification and interventions for children who have experienced negative impacts from ACEs could offer substantial benefits, but despite recommendations for ACEs screening in primary care, many affected children go undetected. School-age children spend about 180 days in school each year, and the school setting may be an ideal place to identify children at risk from ACEs. School nurses and other personnel including teachers, counselors, social workers, and psychologists are well-suited to screen for ACEs and provide interventions to help reduce and mitigate the harmful effects of ACEs, however, screening for ACEs in schools has not been widely implemented. The purpose of this quality-improvement, evidence-implementation project was to pilot-test the implementation of ACEs screening as part of the health history intake process in a low-income elementary school in a suburban Midwestern city.Methods: The Pediatric ACEs and Related Life Events Screener (PEARLS) was embedded into a newly designed health history (HH) form. Parents enrolling kindergarten students at the school for the 2020-2021 school year were asked to complete the new form. An introductory letter was included, and parents were asked to provide feedback of the new HH form via a short post-survey. Parents of students with an ACE score of 4 or higher were considered at risk and were contacted by the project leader for further evaluation and referral as needed. Results: Of the health history forms that were returned by parents, 81% of parents completed the PEARLS portion of the form. The PEARLS screenings indicated that 33% of kindergarten children had an ACE score of 1 or more, and 9.5% of children had an ACE score greater than 4 prior to enrollment. The project leader contacted 26% of parents who completed the HH form and 15% were referred for additional evaluation. Parental perception of the health history form was generally positive, but several parents reported concerns (e.g. fear of mandatory reporting) regarding completing the PEARLS tool. Conclusions: Screening for ACEs can be accomplished in the school setting using the PEARLS as part of the student health history intake process. Further projects are needed to determine how to best engage and educate families regarding ACEs and their effects on children’s health and school achievement."],"dc:identifier.other":["http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:17643"],"dc:identifier.uri":["https://hdl.handle.net/1808/39172"],"dc:language.iso":["en"],"dc:publisher":["University of Kansas"],"dc:rights":["Copyright held by the author."],"dc:subject":["Nursing"],"dc:title":["Implementation of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Screening in a Midwestern Elementary School"],"dc:type":["Dissertation"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:46:17Z"}