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This is short video that explains what Restorative Practices are.

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Restorative Practices in Schools Have Power to Transform Communities | Liz Knapp | TEDxMcMinnville

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Virtual Morning Meeting Activities for Distance Learning (Zoom and Google Meet)

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FREE TRAINING THOUGH SBC office of Schools

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FREE TRAINING THOUGH SBC office of Schools

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Audience
District, Site, and Charter School Administrators, Directors (i.e. Elementary, Secondary, CTE/ROP), Counselors, Teacher Leads, and Designees

Facilitator(s)
Serena Straka

Location
General Location of Event: Webinar
Event location will be provided upon confirmation.

Contact
Stephanie Mahe
stephanie.mahe@sbcss.net
P: (909) 386-2969

Sponsor
Local Control Accountability Plan Events

Registration Deadline: 01/08/2021

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Local Control Accountability Plan Events

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Audience District, Site, and Charter School Administrators, Directors (i.e. Elementary, Secondary, CTE/ROP), Counselors, Teacher Leads, and Designees Facilitator(s) Serena Straka Location General Location of Event: Webinar Event location will be provided upon confirmation. Contact Stephanie Mahe stephanie.mahe@sbcss.net P: (909) 386-2969 Sponsor Local Control Accountability Plan Events Registration Deadline: 01/08/2021

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Book Study Guide

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Are you or your teachers frustrated with carrots and sticks, detention rooms, and suspension-antiquated school discipline practices that simply do not work with the students entering our classrooms today? Our kids have complex needs, and we must empower and embrace them with restorative practices that not only change behaviors but transform students into productive citizens, accountable for their own actions.

In a book that should become your new blueprint for school discipline, teachers, presenters, and school leaders, Nathan Maynard and Brad Weinstein demonstrate how to eliminate punishment and build a culture of responsible students and independent learners. In Hacking School Discipline, you learn to:

Reduce repeated negative behaviors

Build student self-regulation and empathy

Enhance communication and collaboration

Identify the true cause of negative behaviors

Use restorative circles to reflect on behaviors and discuss impactful change

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Check out this great listen on Audible.com. Are you or your teachers frustrated with carrots and sticks, detention rooms, and suspension-antiquated school discipline practices that simply do not work with the students entering our classrooms today? Our kids have complex needs, and we must empower ...

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This can be used reactively.

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Professional Reading

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The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated feelings of isolation, stress, loss, and more among young people, adults, families, and communities. Social and emotional learning (SEL) offers a powerful means to support one another during these challenging times as our communities work to address the impact of the pandemic on students' learning and development.

Now, more than ever, we understand how important it is to demonstrate empathy and resilience, build relationships across distance, and call upon our collective resolve to strengthen our schools and our communities.

So, how can SEL support you and your work during this time? Find resources and guidance in Reunite, Renew, Thrive: SEL Roadmap for Reopening School (July 2020).

Our recommendations follow the four core focus areas for schoolwide SEL and districtwide SEL:

First, create a foundation for SEL.

Work with students, families, and communities to envision how education can more holistically support all learners.

Prioritize strong, two-way communication between families and schools.

Second, attend to well-being and mutual support among adults.

Pay close attention to our own social-emotional needs in order to be the community of adults who best serve our young people.

Foster supportive adult relationships to process emotions, share challenges, and offer support to one another.

Third, promote SEL for young people.

Provide consistency in daily routines to foster a sense of safety and predictability.

Listen to young people and support them in building or maintaining a sense of community and connection.

Incorporate social and emotional skill-building into learning (such as CASEL's SEL 3 Signature Practices).

Fourth, reflect on how things are going and adjust as you learn.

Listen to students, families, and your wider community of stakeholders as valuable sources of information about what is or isn't working.

Analyze results with a lens of equity to meet needs using our SEL Data Reflection Protocol

How is CASEL advancing this work?
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Guidance on School Transitions and Reopening

To aid in this time of continued transitions, CASEL collaborated with more than 40 partners to illuminate a way forward through Reunite, Renew, Thrive: SEL Roadmap for Reopening School (July 2020), centered on relationships and built on the existing strengths of a school community. As we prepared for Spring 2021, we offered three strategies adapted from the SEL Roadmap to re-examine efforts for a successful second semester: Refocus on the SEL Roadmap: Actions for a Successful Second Semester (January 2021).

CASEL CARES Webinar Series

In response to the pandemic, CASEL mobilized to provide social and emotional support to our communities and share best practices through an initiative called CASEL CARES. We offered weekly practical guidance and information on topics that were sourced from the field and relevant to the needs of today. Our CASEL CARES Webinars covered a wide range of SEL topics and attracted more than 100,000 people. View the on-demand series

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The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated feelings of isolation, stress, loss, and more among young people, adults, families, and communities. Social and

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Copy of Responsive Restorative Practices & Remote Learning

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How to Bring PBIS & Restorative Practices to Your Online Classroom

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Restorative Justice: Resources for Schools

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Explore resources and case studies that demonstrate how to bring restorative justice to your school or classroom.

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TSDC Toolkit on Discipline in Remote and Blended Learning During Covid-19.pdf

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Restorative Practices, sometimes referred to as Restorative Justice, is a framework for building community and for responding to challenging behavior through authentic dialogue.

Restorative Practices, sometimes referred to as Restorative Justice, is a framework for building community and for responding to challenging behavior through authentic dialogue. Restorative Practices shift the conversation between teachers and students to be less punishment-oriented and to offer an opportunity for all people affected by an action to have dialogue about how to make things right and restore the classroom community.

Here are 5 ideas to help you bring Restorative Practices into your classroom:

Mindfulness

Restorative Circles

Affective Statements

Collaborative Class Agreements

Problem-Solving Anchor Chart

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is the ability to be fully present and aware of where you are and what you are doing. Mindfulness allows students to become more self-aware with classmates and teachers. It also increases focus, and reduces stress and anxiety. Mindfulness practice involves sitting quietly for a few minutes and focusing on your breath. It can be guided with words, assisted with calming music, or completely silent. There are many resources to encourage mindfulness for children including Mindfulness for Children by Annaka Harris and Go Noodle. There are also several apps including Smiling Mind, Headspace, Calm, and Three Good Things to help with Mindfulness in the classroom.

Restorative Circles

Restorative Circles are an excellent way to bring Restorative Practices into the classroom and establish a supportive community. Circles help to build self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship skills. During circle time, participants sit in the circle to discuss group issues or reflect on their feelings. There is a centerpiece and a talking piece, used to identify who is allowed to talk at a particular time. Restorative Circles can be used to check in about your day, resolve conflict, or for academic conversations. Circles have many parts and require planning to make them effective and impactful. Check out what the Center for Restorative Process has to say about conducting effective .

Affective Statements

Affective statements, or feelings statements, are personal expressions of feelings as a response to someone else's actions. With affective statements you state your feeling, the reason for the feeling and what you need to feel better. Affective statements can be used between teachers and students or peer-to-peer. It is important for teachers to model using the statements with their students, so students see positive examples of expressing feelings and making requests.

Scenarios of affective statements in action

Scenario 1: Jason called David "stupid", teacher response

Teacher says: "Jason I felt sad that you called David stupid because he is an excellent student and he works very hard. I need you to apologize for what you said and think of some other ways you can manage your frustration if you are mad at your friend."
The teacher stated her feelings, without placing blame, and told the student what she needs to feel better.
Scenario 2: Jason called David "stupid", student response

David says: "When you called me stupid I was angry because I thought we were friends. I need an apology and a high five."
David stated his feelings and told Jason what he needed to feel better.
Consider placing a "Feelings Script" in your classroom to model for students how to use affective statements if they have to solve a conflict on their own. Affective statements help build social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. Role play with students how to give feedback to classmates respectfully and how to receive feedback if they are the person who has done something to hurt someone's feelings.

Example Feelings Script
I feel/am _________________(emotion) when/that you______________(behavior) because__________________ (reason). I need________________ (request).
Collaborative Class Agreements

Instead of making your classroom rules before the students get to your classroom in the fall, consider making your rules together as a class. When students are given the opportunity to contribute to the rules that will govern their class they develop a sense of ownership for their classroom. Teachers and students can collaborate to make rules that will create a great classroom environment.

Problem-Solving Anchor Chart

Brainstorm scenarios with students that require teacher help and scenarios that students can try to problem-solve independently. In my own classroom I have used the phrase, "Big Deal and No Big Deal". Together my students and I discuss things that could happen in the school day that are a "Big Deal", and you must tell a teacher immediately, i.e. fighting, someone is hurt, theft. Then we discussed things that can happen in the school day that could be considered "No Big Deal" i.e. that's my spot, you stepped on my foot, you have something I want.

After categorizing the events, we discuss possible solutions to the problem. If it was a "Big Deal" the solution was always tell the teacher or an adult. If it was "No Big Deal" the solutions might be use the feelings script, find another spot/item, wait, or ignore. The solutions are based on your class and what your community feels is an appropriate solution to the problem. This anchor chart stays up all year and can be amended as needed. The goal is to empower students to solve their own problems in constructive ways. This type of exercise helps to build self-awareness, self-management, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making.

Here at we have seen school culture transform because of effective implementations of Restorative Practices. We also have the tools and resources to support your school team as they begin to implement Restorative Practices as a way to promote positive school culture. to learn more about how Kickboard can support Restorative Practices in your school.

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Restorative Practice Ideas for Your Classroom | Kickboard

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Restorative Practices, sometimes referred to as Restorative Justice, is a framework for building community and for responding to challenging behavior through authentic dialogue. Restorative Practices, sometimes referred to as Restorative Justice, is a framework for building community and for responding to challenging behavior through authentic dialogue.

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The new question-of-the-week is:
What are practical ways to implement restorative practices?
There is more and more interest in moving away from "traditional" school discipline and toward restorative practices. This series will explore what that kind of shift can look like-in practical terms-inside our schools and classrooms.

Today, Dr. Sheila Wilson, Maurice McDavid, Timothy Hilton, Ashley McCall, Bryan Harris, and Kara Pranikoff contribute their commentaries. You can listen to a ten-minute conversation I had with Sheila, Maurice, and Timothy on my BAM! Radio Show. You can also find a list of, and links to, previous shows here.
"When You Know Better, You Do Better!" Dr. Sheila Wilson is a native New Orleanian. She currently works as a 5th grade teacher in Virginia. In addition to instructional leadership, she serves to improve the capacity of students, teachers, and families through her roles as grade chair, lead mentor teacher, family-engagement liaison, and SCA adviser. Dr. Wilson is also an adjunct professor, conference presenter, and self-proclaimed lifelong learner. She is passionate about amplifying instruction, school leadership, and equity:
We are all familiar with the discipline practices of yesteryear, which would likely cause any conscientious educator today to cringe. Corporal punishment/traditional discipline practices were widely accepted and viewed as a means of correcting unwanted negative behaviors. I can vividly remember being a high school sophomore assigned to write 500 lines for being caught passing a note in the classroom. And who can forget the ultimate ... getting paddled in the principal's office! Even though it didn't personally happen to me (really), just the idea evoked fear in students of all ages and deterred most from mischievous acts. So, why was corporal punishment acceptable then? Why is corporal punishment no longer an accepted discipline practice in most places? Is punishment designed for those who obey the rules or for others? These questions make me call to mind the adage, "When you know better, you do better!"

Countless studies have shown that traditional discipline practices are no longer effective in today's schools. In fact, traditional practices were so commonplace in part because the ability to apply an immediate consequence was less time consuming for the one doling out the punishment. However, we now embrace restorative practices because they draw their strength in their ability to empower students to learn from unacceptable choices, to understand their impact, and to grow personally in their ability to make more sound decisions and resolve problems. Restorative practices represent a positive step forward in helping all students learn to resolve disagreements, take ownership of their behavior, and engage in acts of empathy and forgiveness.

There are many ways to implement restorative practices in the classroom. First, teachers can incorporate daily morning meetings to build relationships with students, get a sense of their social/emotional mindset, and set the tone and focus for the instructional day. Teachers can also utilize goal setting with their students as a restorative practice. With goal setting, students take ownership of areas they'd like to improve (academically or socially), and they set realistic and actionable steps to work toward their goal. By providing individual goal conferences, teachers can check in to see if students are on track to meet their goals, and students learn to self-check and refocus as needed. Another useful strategy is when an unacceptable behavior has happened that the teacher allows the offended student to share how the offense made him/her feel. In this way, the offender is able to understand how his/her behavior impacts others and therefore understand the perspective of the other person. Finally, there is great restorative power in having the student who has made an unacceptable choice reflect on his/her behavior in writing by addressing very specific questions like: What choice did I make? How did my choice impact others? Is there a better way that I could have addressed this situation? If I had the opportunity for a redo, would I make the same choice? Why or why not?

There are a number of benefits or restorative practices:

Builds relationships

Strives to be respectful to all

Provides the opportunity for equitable dialogue and decisionmaking

Involves relevant stakeholders

Addresses harms, needs, obligations

Encourages all to take responsibility

Educators have come to realize that you can't punish a child into doing anything. Instead of simply instituting harsh punishment, we need to teach kids the kind of skills, supported by research, to help them improve their behavior. This is why districts are embracing the implementation of restorative structures in schools across the nation. In building socially responsible students, we must arm them with the ability to think critically, problem-solve, and be able to work collaboratively with others. It will be through their mastery of academic knowledge AND their capacity to engage successfully with others that will ultimately guarantee their future success. Therefore, as educators, we must invest our efforts wisely.

Four Restorative Practices
Maurice McDavid earned his bachelor's degree in elementary education with a minor in history and Spanish. He has taught middle school history, English, and Spanish, as well as high school geography. He was dean of students for three years and is now in his first year as assistant principal at a bilingual elementary school.:

There are four restorative practices that I have worked to implement in our school building that all work on the same model of restorative justice: community-building circles, norm setting, community circles for content, and restorative chats.

Community-building circles: This practice is great for the beginning of the year, as well as use throughout the year to build a community of learners. This allows the students to get to know one another, as well as the teacher. This practice builds empathy amongst the students and will reduce the negative attacking behaviors that can exist in classrooms.

Norm setting: This practice is done using the model of a community-building circle but emphasizes the building of classroom norms together. Oftentimes, rules are handed down by authority and are necessary. Through the norm-setting process, students discuss the values (love, kindness, honesty, etc.) that are important to them in a relationship. From there, students take the values and turn them into action statements describing how they could live out those values in the classroom. A list of action statements or norms are created and can then be edited together as a class. What is awesome about this process is that the norms created are not adult-driven but instead are created as a community and thus has more community buy-in.

Community circles for content: This again uses the community-circle model for the base of practice. The difference is that rather than simply looking to build community, you can use the circle to present content in a class. It is a great discussion model. I have used it to introduce units and gather feedback about students' background information. The students are able to share openly and yet in an organized fashion, using the talking piece to moderate.

Restorative chats: Restorative chats are used when students do not meet the norms that were established in the classroom. It can be one on one or can be done with the whole class. It is centered around the following four questions:

What happened? - This differs from what did you do and allows students to tell the whole story and feel heard.

What were you thinking at the time? - This asks students to go back through the mental process they used when making the decision to act outside of the norms. This is a meta-cognitive practice. It allows for reflection on what thoughts and/or emotions may have led to the behavior.

Who or what was harmed? - This question asks the student to be accountable for the idea that their behavior caused harm to someone or something. Students are quick to discover that they have harmed themselves and, oftentimes, see how their behavior has harmed a teacher or classmate. This builds empathy.

How do you repair the harm? - This question asks the student to think about how they can make the situation right rather than simply serving a consequence that is not directly connected to the action. Students may offer to apologize or clean up a mess created. Students get to be a part of deciding what happens rather than having a decision made for them.

Starting "Small" Timothy Hilton is a climate and culture specialist with the Fresno Unified school district, in California, where he coaches teachers on classroom management and class climate. Timothy has over 10 years classroom-teaching experience at every level of social studies, ranging from Advanced Placement to English-language development. Timothy is currently a doctoral candidate at Claremont Graduate University in the field of educational policy, evaluation, and reform:
The Restorative practices world is a world that many educators fear simply because they do not know a lot about it. Educators are rarely trained to an adequate level in how to make Restorative Practices (RP) work in their daily lives. Teachers are usually shown the heavy-duty re-entry circles or conflict mediation to demonstrate the power of RP, but this often leaves teachers intimidated, overwhelmed, and asking how this is going to work for them.

The best, and most practical way, to implement restorative practices in the classroom is to start small with some basic restorative skills that can be practiced in your classroom, and even in your life outside of school. These skills are listening, affective communication, and curiosity questions. Once these skills have been practiced, lived, and embraced, then teacher can begin working into the heavier-duty RP practices.

Listening: While the concept of listening seems self-explanatory, we as teachers do not always do it. We are often trying to do a million things at once and, in turn, never really listen to our students. We hear them, but do we listen? In a restorative classroom, there are a couple ways we can demonstrate that we are listening. First is by mirroring their emotions and feelings about a topic. If they are serious when they are telling you something, then be serious as you listen. Second is by demonstrating active listening and paraphrasing. Saying things like, "What I am hearing you say is ..." Third is by being present and validating their feelings. If they are telling you something, make sure you are in the conversation and not planning your grocery list. A big part of being present is validating their feelings. You can do this by making statements such as, " I understand why you are upset." Or, "I cannot even imagine what you must be feeling, but that you so much for sharing with me."

Affective Communication: Also known as I-messages, these are powerful restorative tools that can be easily used in every classroom. These statements are done to connect the actions of your students to the impact they have on you. Affective statements require teachers to be willing to be honest and share their feelings. Affective statements follow simple formulas that can be used in every affective statement you make, "I feel/felt _____ when you _____." Another example is, "I would like/what I need is _____." The statement frames can be combined or used independently and might look like this, "I felt disappointed when I caught you cheating on the test. " Or,

"I felt sad yesterday when I found out you lied to me because I have always trusted you. I need you to trust me enough to be honest with me. " These questions tie the actions of an individual to the effect they had, something students often forget about.

Curiosity Questions: These are genuine questions you would ask someone to learn more about their situation. Imagine a student just does not seem to be having a good day. You can pull them aside and ask some curiosity questions to find out more. Simple questions like, "How are you doing today?" Or, "You seem kind of off today, is everything OK?" These questions help dive into an issue, but curiosity questions can also help resolve a conflict, "How did it make you feel when Tommy hit you?" or "What do you need Tommy to say to you to feel better?" These are just some very surface-level examples, but many more can be found online and in print resources.

Online Resources for Support Ashley McCall is a 3rd grade English/language arts educator at Chavez Multicultural Academic Center in Back of the Yards (Chicago) where she serves as a teacher representative on the local school council. She is a Teach Plus Teaching Policy Fellowship alumna and a member of the Teach Plus Board:
Many districts that are new to restorative practices are under the impression that it is a program to implement. It is not. Restorative practices are about shifting the mindsets and developing the capacity of stakeholders (students, families, teachers, administrators, receptionists, cafeteria staff, security staff, etc.) so they are invested in the culture and climate of the building and accept responsibility for maintaining a safe, enjoyable, and productive environment for all involved. When stakeholders are invested and properly trained, we are able to effectively sustain healthy school climates and respond effectively to breaches in our social contract.

If you are looking to shift toward more restorative practices in your school, you need buy-in across stakeholder groups. Consider how you (and a diverse group of stakeholders) will make a case for and create a sense of urgency around restorative practices at your school. Consider how you can use data as a reflective tool (rather than a tool for shaming and punishment) to drive conversations around the culture, climate, and current disciplinary practices.

Conflict-Resolution Sentence Starters As a career-long educator, Bryan Harris has served in a variety of roles from classroom teacher to district-level leader. Now working full time as a trainer, his work focuses on topics ranging from student engagement to teacher resiliency. Find out more at his website:
At the heart of restorative practices-in fact, it's right there in the name-is helping students learn how to repair and restore relationships after a conflict, hurt, offense, or fight.

The sad fact is that far too many of our students enter school without effective conflict-resolution skills. This includes the skill of recognizing when you've done harm to someone else and how to fix it. Notice that I didn't say that kids don't have any conflict-resolution skills. The fact is that they do-it's just that many of the skills and communication methods they've acquired are not healthy or productive.

So, as teachers and leaders, what do we do?

The first step is knowing that conflict is normal and cannot be fully avoided as long as you interact with other people. Once we help our students understand this very important idea, helping them develop and refine skills that communicate remorse is a great next step. In other words, teach them the power of an apology.

When students know how to sincerely offer and genuinely accept an apology, it serves as the foundation to restore broken relationships.

Have you ever seen something like this before?

Student A (we'll call them the offender) sheepishly walks over to Student B and says, "Sorry." They mumble the word under their breath while looking directly at the ground, arms folded the entire time.

Student B (we'll call them the victim) reluctantly says, "That's OK," while also looking at the ground and counting the seconds until they can run away.

In this all-too-common scenario, both students are likely embarrassed, and the conflict is not resolved. While some of the right words were used, Student A didn't truly apologize, and Student B didn't authentically accept it.

Imagine how different that interaction would be if students used specific words and phrases that communicate remorse for the offense and acceptance of an apology. It might sound like this:

Student A: "I am sorry for drawing that picture of you and showing it to your friends. I realize that made you feel sad. I promise I'll never do that again. Will you please forgive me?"

Student B: "Since you promised to never do that again, I accept your apology."

Notice the difference in the words. A great first place to start is by teaching students, by the use of sentence starters, which words are most effective at offering and accepting an apology. The following examples are great places to start:
How to Offer an Apology
* I apologize for ...

* It was my fault that _______ happened. I apologize for letting it happen.

* I realize that....

* I realize that _____ was my fault and I am sorry for making you feel ________.

* I am truly sorry that I did this. I want to make things better. Tell me how I can do that.
How to Accept an Apology
* I accept your apology. Make sure this does not happen again.

* Because I know you will not do this again, I accept your apology.

* I'll accept your apology because....

* Because you know that ______ was wrong, I accept your apology.

* Because you know that ______ hurt me, I can accept your apology.

Four Strategies for Promoting Restorative Practices
Kara Pranikoff is an elementary school teacher at a public school in New York City. Her book, Teaching Talk: A Practical Guide to Fostering Student Thinking and Conversation (Heinemann, 2017), shares many ways to keep the balance of classroom discussion in the hands of the students:

It was a beautiful springtime morning in New York. I walked into the yard to pick up my 2nd graders, and they swarmed to me, ready to begin our day.

Hudson stood atypically off to the side. Bending down to meet his eyes, I asked what was going on. "I don't want to talk about it now," he said quietly. "But may I give a public-service announcement when we get up to our room?"

"Public-service announcements" were statements that students needed to share with the rest of the community. Often these were messages that would increase our efficiency. (Can everyone place their jackets on hooks so that the space stays neat?) Or messages that would help us work better together. (Remember, we need to have a calmer science class so we can do our experiment.)

"I'd like to speak with everyone, even before we unpack," he requested. I was unsure about the content of his message, but it was clear that Hudson needed to begin our day.

Students entered the class, placed backpacks at their tables, and moved directly onto the rug. Hudson took a seat in the front corner of our meeting area, and I settled onto the bench in-between his peers.

"I'm feeling a little sad today," he began. "I just want everyone to know that last night my great-grandmother died. I want everyone to know that I might not want to play very much today."

The class responded with care. Some had questions that were typical of 2nd graders trying to get the literal facts: How old was she? How did she die? Then Hunter, Hudson's closest friend, raised her hand. "How can we help you feel better?" she wanted to know.

Restorative practices are essential for a community to care for each other and grow together. Our best learning happens when we feel safe and secure. This priority requires attention each day in order to bring together an entire classroom of diverse students.

The tools which enabled the students to listen and support Hudson in his time of need were put in place in the fall-nurtured and practiced each day-so that by springtime they could be used, with independence. Here are some essential ways to develop these habits of mind:

Have discussion in circle every day

It's said that one way to achieve closeness with others is to eat with them. It's not just the literal nourishment but the connection which is fostered by close physical proximity. The classroom equivalent is to set aside a space where the whole community can gather and face each other in a circle. This creates an area of inclusion where students can share their thoughts and ideas.
Make space for students to speak and respond to each other independently
Students' ownership of their shared space requires the ability for them to express their thoughts freely. Speaking in partnership or small groups can be woven into every day so that sharing and building ideas, independent of the teacher, is a regular practice.
Invite the lives of your students into the classroom
Restorative practice honors the full being of each student. For this to happen, students must have the freedom to share what is on their mind. We must embrace the child as a whole, enabling them to express the joys that happen both inside and outside of school, as well as the struggles.

Begin your day together

Each day we transition from our home space with family to our classroom community. By gathering as a whole class first thing every morning, we make a commitment to welcome our day together. We can set our intentions and get our minds ready for what is coming ahead in our shared learning.

Thanks to Sheila, Maurice, Timothy, Ashley, Bryan, and Kara for their contributions.

Please feel free to leave a comment with your reactions to the topic or directly to anything that has been said in this post.
Just a reminder; you can subscribe and receive updates from this blog via email or RSS Reader. And if you missed any of the highlights from the first eight years of this blog, you can see a categorized list below. The list doesn't include ones from this current year, but you can find those by clicking on the "answers" category found in the sidebar. Look for Part Two in a few days.

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Ways to Implement Restorative Practices in the Classroom (Opinion)

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Educators share their practical experience implementing restorative practices in their schools, such as holding goal-setting conferences with students and teaching them "the power of an apology."

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Restorative Justice: Resources for Schools

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Explore resources and case studies that demonstrate how to bring restorative justice to your school or classroom.

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Most schools use punitive discipline systems: Break a rule and you're punished with detention or even suspension. But these systems can interrupt a student's education and lead to further bad behavior. They also don't provide kids with any skills for working through issues with others. That's why some schools are trying restorative justice instead. Here's what you need to know about it.

What is restorative justice in schools?

Restorative justice is a theory of justice that focuses on mediation and agreement rather than punishment. Offenders must accept responsibility for harm and make restitution with victims. Indigenous people like the Maori have used this system successfully in their communities for generations.

In recent years, various countries have tried the practice in an effort to make their criminal justice systems more effective. This led to the exploration of restorative justice in schools, especially those with high rates of student misbehavior.

In California, Oakland Unified School District began using the program at a failing middle school in 2006. Within three years, the pilot school saw an 87% decrease in suspensions, with a corresponding decrease in violence. The practice was so successful that by 2011 OUSD made restorative justice the new model for handling disciplinary problems.

What are the basic practices of restorative justice?

"Restorative justice is a fundamental change in how you respond to rule violations and misbehavior," said Ron Claassen, an expert and pioneer in the field. "The typical response to bad behavior is punishment. Restorative justice resolves disciplinary problems in a cooperative and constructive way." Schools like OUSD use a three-tiered approach focused on prevention, intervention, and reintegration.

Restorative Justice Tier I: Prevention

The first tier is all about community-building as a preventive measure. Teachers or peer facilitators lead students in circles of sharing, where kids open up about their fears and goals. "The circles are based on indigenous practices that value inclusiveness, respect, dealing with things as a community, and supporting healing," explains David Yurem, OUSD's first program manager. "Kids really resonate with this process. I've seen kids share things that I was extremely surprised by, like eighth grade boys talking about what scares them. To seem weak in their world is a life-threatening thing, so I was really impressed."

Students play an integral part in creating the climate of Tier I. The teacher and students start the year by creating a classroom respect agreement. Everyone agrees to be held accountable. The contract is an extremely effective way of maintaining harmony in the classroom. "Teachers can't say, 'Here are my rules, sign them,'" says Yurem. "That doesn't work. There's no ownership for the students in that. If the children help create the rules, then they have ownership. And if they break them, they can be referred back to them."

Restorative Justice Tier II: Intervention

Tier II comes into play when students break rules and someone has caused harm to someone else. In traditional justice, this is when punishments are meted out. Restorative justice instead turns to mediation. The offending student is given the chance to come forward and make things right. They meet with the affected parties and a mediator, usually a teacher.

The mediator asks nonjudgmental, restorative questions like What happened? How did it happen? or What can we do to make it right? Through their discussions, everyone learns about what happened, why it happened, and how the damage can be fixed. "They'll talk about what can be done to repair the harm," Yurem shares. "They'll come up with a plan and fulfill that plan. And hopefully, the relationship will be stronger. It's really all about relationships-building and repairing them."

Restorative Justice Tier III: Reintegration

Tier III aims to help kids who've been out of school due to suspension, expulsion, incarceration, or truancy. Returning to school life can be a real challenge in those cases. Many students in traditional environments quickly re-offend or drop out again. Restorative-justice practices seek to reduce this recidivism by providing a "wraparound" supportive environment from the start. They acknowledge the student's challenges while promoting accountability and achievement.

Does restorative justice really work in a classroom?

So what does all this look like in a real-world school or classroom? Roxanne Claassen was one of the first teachers to try restorative justice in school. She'd seen the success her husband, Ron, had using it in his work with the juvenile criminal justice system. Roxanne decided to try the model in her Fresno, California, elementary school classroom.

Claassen worked with students to write a respect agreement. Together they determined how they would treat each other to create a positive classroom community. If a student violated the agreement, Roxanne reminded them of it and asked if they wanted to honor it. Ninety percent of the time, the student did, and the problem ended there.

If the problem continued, Claassen worked together with the student to try to find a solution. "You say, 'Here's the problem. What can we do to fix it?' The message you're sending the child is, 'I'm not against you, I'm for you. I want you to succeed,'" emphasizes Claassen.

A Real-Life Example

In one instance, two of Claassen's eighth grade boys broke a paper towel dispenser in the bathroom. At first, no one admitted responsibility. Claassen told them, "We have a restorative discipline system here, so we accept responsibility and can make things as right as possible. But we can't do that unless someone accepts responsibility."

The boys admitted they'd done it. Claassen called a meeting with all the people involved or affected by the incident-the boys, their parents, and the custodian. They talked about what happened, and everyone had a voice. "In that process, the custodian had a chance to let the students know how difficult it is to replace a dispenser," said Claassen. "It gave the students incredible knowledge of a real-world situation in a way a suspension never could, and relationships improved instead of being damaged."

One of the students couldn't afford to pay to replace the dispenser. So the student himself suggested that he could work with the custodian to pay his debt. He enjoyed it so much that he continued to help the custodian long after he'd finished his restitution!

Does restorative justice address racial justice?

OUSD's Restorative and Racial Justice homepage is clear: "There is no restorative justice without racial justice." To begin with, this means honoring the indigenous roots of the practice. It also means encouraging program participants to consider how racial privilege and prejudice affect them all.

The Center for Court Innovation runs restorative justice programs in five underserved Brooklyn schools. They're trying to address the subject through a racial justice lens. "Restorative justice is about accountability and repairing harm," they note. "What about accountability for the system that has produced these underserved and essentially segregated schools and then punishes the kids for reacting to that neglect?"

In other words, schools must address racist policies and practices along with restorative justice efforts. They can use the system to help historically privileged students make amends to the victims of long-standing prejudices. This is an extremely tricky topic and a fairly new one. Try these resources to learn more:

What are the potential benefits of restorative justice?

If you're thinking that this sounds like a lot of work, especially up front, you're right. But many teachers and administrators who use these programs say the benefits far outweigh the effort.

Less stress

Teachers who use restorative discipline practices find that behavior in their classrooms improves dramatically. They have better relationships with their students and, therefore, less stress from unresolved conflicts. "Restorative discipline improved my relationships with students," states Claassen. "Instead of making the relationships more difficult, it brought us together and improved our interactions."

More time for teaching

"You spend less time ... on discipline and have more time available for teaching and interaction when you use restorative practices," Claassen observes. "Students aren't afraid to admit when they've done something wrong as they are in a punitive environment, so you save a lot of time investigating who did what."

Ron adds, "When you have a punitive system, the automatic response is to deny responsibility because you know you'll get punished. With a restorative justice system, the incentive is to admit what you did because you know there's going to be a restorative process to make things right."

Better outcomes for students

Statistics show that using restorative practices keeps kids in school. Punitive systems often remove students from the classroom, even for minor offenses. With restorative justice, everyone works together to keep kids in the classroom where they can learn. Children who are expelled often end up in what education reform activists call the school-to-prison pipeline. Restorative justice tries to stop this cycle and keep kids on track with their education.

Addressing root causes

Restorative justice encourages kids to explore the reasons and effects of their offenses. "Restorative justice addresses the harm caused by the offense and the harm revealed by the offense," says Yurem. "When you get these kids talking, you learn about the traumas they have faced. Maybe their brother was killed, or their father was sent to prison. If you can get to the root of the cause of the offense, you're truly stopping the cycle."

Real-life skills

Even if there isn't a major underlying problem, talking about an issue is an important skill for students to learn. "The restorative process teaches students how to resolve conflict in a positive way," Ron Claassen says. "It helps them develop rational skills-to understand a situation, follow a process, and resolve it. These are life skills they can take with them into the world."

What are the drawbacks of restorative justice in schools?

For restorative justice to work, it requires engagement from all involved parties. If the offender isn't willing to take responsibility and make meaningful restitution, the program can't help. Schools using this system find they still need traditional disciplinary actions available for circumstances like this.

More than this, restorative justice in schools requires a pledge of time and money from the district and its administration. There are multiple examples of schools that set aside funds to implement the program but leave the money unspent. Other districts encourage teachers to use restorative discipline but provide little or no training or support. And busy teachers are understandably leery of trying yet another program that's supposed to solve all their problems.

Schools that dedicate themselves fully to the system, like Oakland USD and Chicago Public Schools, see real change and benefits. But the time, money, and enthusiasm required to make it work can be prohibitive for others.

What do real educators think about restorative justice in schools?

When this topic pops up for debate in our We Are Teachers HELPLINE and Principal Life Facebook groups, educators tend to have a lot of opinions about it. Here are some of their thoughts:

"We started RJ this year, and since it was so new there was a STEEP learning curve for everyone involved, despite numerous trainings. Just remember that some students will respond to it right off the bat, some take time, and others are just not going to participate in circles and things, and that's OK. My opinion is this: In theory, RJ is an excellent idea. I really think it can help build student-teacher relationships. In practice, the school must go '"'all in' in order for it to work."

"I love this approach. It has been highly successful for me and my colleagues who took it seriously. I have seen improvements at tough schools that I've worked in. ... By the way, this isn't just for minority children. It isn't just for Caucasian teachers. It's for all people. These practices can also resolve issues with teacher and admin, parents and schools, etc."

"I find that many kids don't open up in the circle and are afraid to share because the other kids don't always respect what is said there. Not sure how to change that, but because they aren't genuine in the circle, they are not reaping the benefits of genuine communication."

"Restorative justice cannot be rushed. It does not work when those participating have a time limit of 20 minutes and back to class."

"It takes time to build the culture. Have someone come in and give an overview of the philosophy and to share a circle. This gets everyone thinking. Don't demand that everyone must do it ... but request that everyone begins building relationships with their students and colleagues. Start with a team of teacher leaders who practice it and share their experience and celebrations. It will catch on! It takes about 3 years to build the culture!"

How can schools implement restorative justice?

On their own, teachers can use some aspects of the restorative justice system in their classrooms. "Respect agreements" are a good place to start, giving students a stake in making the classroom successful. Then, spend some time learning about sharing circles and mediation (see resources below).

School-wide or system-wide restorative justice takes the full commitment of everyone involved in the education process-teachers, administrators, students, and parents. Schools can spend months or even years fully rolling out a program. It's not the right option for everyone, as it requires an extensive dedication of time and money. Teachers interested in bringing a program to their schools should work with their administrators to explore the process. Oakland USD offers a particularly useful Restorative Justice Whole-School Implementation Guide that provides a comprehensive look at what it takes to make it work.

Get additional restorative justice resources.

Institutes and organizations

Books

Does your school use restorative justice, or are you looking to start? Come join the We Are Teachers HELPLINE group on Facebook and chat with other teachers about your experiences.

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What Teachers Need To Know About Restorative Justice

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Restorative justice in schools uses mediation and community building to shift away from a punitive discipline model.

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