I too have some reservations about screening for ACES. First, we already know more than half of our students have at least one or more. So it's not like we need to "see" if any of our students are affected. You don't need an ACE score to tell students they are not alone in their difficulties. The biggest message is where and how to get help. That's for the students.
My second concern is that we educators (I'm a retired elementary principal) need to take a deep and systemic look at our practices in the classroom, school-wide, and in our response to challenging behaviors. Our standard (problem-solving) practice with everything in school is to screen, identify, label, and provide some ad hoc service to those "identified". We educators even with the best intentions, separate, isolate kids and make them feel that they are different and inadequate. If we think screening needs to be done, it's because this is our usual practice. Unfortunately, our usual practices are inadequate when it comes to helping kids with ACES better function at school.
ACES research strongly indicates strong positive relationships and fostering a feeling of belonging is essential to healing. Yes, inform kids that they are not alone in their difficulties. By all means have these conversations. But beware of using the data gathered as yet another "screening" tool to provide an ad hoc service - and fail to make systemic changes within the classroom, the school and the policies around challenging behaviors. Habits, beliefs, and practices of teachers & principals are difficult to break. Let's not treat ACES as yet another way to sort and label. That's why I discourage my workshop participants and school clients from using a screening tool - we have to retrain and rethink, not identify who has ACES. Screening students it's not relevant to us educators since our task is make positive changes that affect every student. And by the way - ACES can change - maybe you have none now, but when one is living in it, the experiences could change overnight. A score last month means nothing - anyone at any time could go from zero ACES to have multiple ones due to changes in ones life circumstances. So it's not even practical for educators to screen. Leave the screening tool for what it was intended - medical and mental health use. We educators need to instead change OUR game and change our practices.
I hope this helps you Margo! Good luck.