Chapin Hall and the Illinois State Board of Education released a new tool this week designed to measure community childhood trauma exposure for children throughout the state.
The Children’s Adversity Index, built in collaboration with eight state agencies and other experts, uses data from state and federal sources related to community risk trajectories, unmet community needs and community barriers to economic progress.
The index allows users to select individual communities to view their profiles and compare their exposure levels with other communities and the state average.
“The Children’s Adversity Index shines a light on the contextual factors that are essential to understanding barriers and opportunities in the communities that surround our schools,” Dana Weiner, the state’s chief officer for children’s behavioral health transformation, said in a statement. “The collaborative process for developing the Index with state and local partners alongside experts in child development and trauma provides a model approach for pursuing rigorous, data-informed systems change.”
The index was mandated by the General Assembly in 2023 as a way to identify and address systemic challenges for Illinois students.
The Pritzker administration said the project builds on its focus to improve access to services for children and their families.
“The… index provides an opportunity for us, as a state, to come together and address the interconnected, systemic challenges facing Illinois children and families – from food insecurity, to lack of access to safe and affordable housing to over-imprisonment,” said State Superintendent of Education Tony Sanders.