Definition: Estimated percentage of children ages 0-17 with and without special health care needs, by number of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) (e.g., in 2022, an estimated 14.2% of California children with special health care needs had experienced four or more ACEs).
Data Source: U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, National Survey of Children's Health (Dec. 2023).
Footnote: Due to changes in methodology, these estimates should not be compared with data from earlier years. Children with special health care needs (CSHCN) have or are at increased risk for a chronic physical, developmental, behavioral, or emotional condition and require health and related services of a type or amount beyond that required by children generally. This indicator reports on 11 adverse childhood experiences: For children ages 0-17, (1) experienced economic hardship, (2) parent or guardian got divorced or separated, (3) parent or guardian died, (4) parent or guardian served time in jail, (5) witnessed domestic violence, (6) witnessed or experienced neighborhood violence, (7) household member was mentally ill, (8) household member abused alcohol or drugs, (9) treated unfairly because of race/ethnicity, (10) treated unfairly because of a health condition or disability, and, for children ages 6-17, (11) treated unfairly because of sexual orientation or gender identity. These estimates are based on a survey of the population and are subject to both sampling and nonsampling error. The annotation [!] indicates that the margin of error for the estimate is greater than 5 percentage points but not greater than 10 percentage points. For more information, see https://www.childhealthdata.org/learn-about-the-nsch/NSCH.
