King receives Rickel Award

National incidence studies in the United States (NIS-3) reports that 2.8 million children are endangered by their caregivers each year.  Teachers play a vital role identifying and reporting abuse of children to child protective services; yet the educational and welfare systems often do not work well together. Little research exists on educators interacting with the child protection system.  To address this issue, Colin King, a doctoral student in the School and Clinical Child Psychology program at the University of Toronto, is looking at the factors that either support or inhibit teachers as reporters of suspected child abuse and examining the intersection between the education and welfare systems.

King has won an APF Annette U. Rickel Dissertation Award for Public Policy for his work and will pursue his research in this critical area with the hope that his work will maximize the effectiveness of both the educational and child protective systems in responding to at-risk children.

King hopes to conduct future research in the areas of family violence, child welfare, and program evaluation.  His research has previously been recognized by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).