Restorative Justice in Schools = Restorative Discipline and Restorative Practices

How does your school deal with minor and serious wrongdoings? Are there more effective ways to deal with these incidents rather than simply isolating and punishing students through office referrals, suspensions and expulsions?

More and more schools across the country are finding that their traditional discipline system isn’t effective enough in dealing with minor and serious wrongdoings and that the principles and practices of restorative justice have much to offer in creating a safe place for learning and growing.

Building Community

Numerous research reports tell us that belonging is perhaps the single most important factor in preventing violence in schools. How schools create a sense of belonging, a sense of community, is key to developing an effective violence prevention strategy, and restorative practices are specifically designed to help students stay connected to school and their peers even when they have made a mistake or when they have been a victim of wrongdoing.

Making Things Right

Restorative justice is a systemic response to wrongdoing that emphasizes healing the wounds of victims, offenders, and communities. Restorative principles and practices help:

• hold the offending student accountable for his or her actions
• provide those who were harmed with a safe place to share how the incident impacted him or her
• include members of the community in developing a moral stance and helping the offending student in making things right
• develop an effective alternative to the traditional system of  school discipline

By “making things right,” restorative practices seeks to knit wholeness back into a community which has been torn; it seeks to repair relationships so students can focus on their school work and reconnect as a member of the learning community.

Restorative Solutions has years of experience helping schools develop customized, comprehensive programs. Our training team works with schools to assess their current discipline system, set realistic goals, and train all members of the school community in principles and practices of restorative justice, also known as restorative measures.

The Training Modules We Offer to Schools are:

• One Year of Training & Support in Restorative Discipline
• Training Students & Staff to be Restorative Justice Facilitators
• Training Community Restorative Justice Teams in School Issues
• Holding Circles for School Issues
• Advanced Training in Emotional Self-Regulation and Understanding Trauma

Our trainings integrate best practices of conflict resolution education and social-emotional learning in an effort to develop a comprehensive approach to restorative school discipline. We can also help schools infuse these concepts and skills into the academic curriculum.

To schedule a training, contact Randy Compton at 303-449-2737.