(AP) — University of Kansas researchers have won a $2.5 million federal grant to develop a system to screen foster children for trauma.

The screening tool will be used to create treatment plans to help children when they are young. The goal is to reduce the need for hospitalizations, incarcerations and other more costly expenses as the children grow older. There also will be a tracking mechanism that permits statewide, systems-level progress monitoring.

The university says that few states have universal screening and assessment tools to deal with trauma in young children. The researchers hope that the Kansas system could prove to be a national model.

Researchers will work with the two foster care contract agencies in Kansas on the project.