Restorative Practices is a philosophy, not a curriculum focusing on building positive relationships and providing opportunities for community members to take responsibility for their behavior while remaining connected to the community. An intentional Restorative approach fosters a compassionate, relationship-centered culture.
Research continues to demonstrate the beneficial outcomes of using restorative practice techniques in schools, rather than traditional punitive approaches, in response to student misbehavior. These include decreasing student delinquency, better academic outcomes, and improvement of overall school climate.
The school-to-prison pipeline is a metaphor used to describe the increasing patterns of contact that students have with the juvenile and adult criminal justice systems as a result of the traditional punitive practices implemented by educational institutions.
Restorative Practices reduce the disproportionality high disciplinary referrals, suspensions and expulsions of children of color and; therefore, reduce the odds that students will subsequently become involved in the juvenile justice system
Our trainings are always customizable and built on the specific needs of the school or institution to create a sustainable Restorative Practices culture. To schedule a training at your institution please contact our Restorative Practices Coordinator at 303.865.5624 or amber.ford@conflictcenter.org or sign-up for one of our core Restorative Practices trainings offered regularly at The Conflict Center by clicking ‘View Trainings’ below.
The Conflict Center employs our unique Five Strategy approach to Restorative Practices which focuses on building Restorative Practices skills within a school and intentionally shaping the internal culture–shifting from traditional, punitive discipline to a restorative practice approach.
Our consensus-based assessment tool allows us to understand the infrastructure, leadership, culture and protocols unique to each school and assess readiness for implementation of Restorative Practices.
With insight from the assessment data, we create a tailored road map, identifying the school’s assets, needs and priorities to move forward with successful Restorative Practices implementation.
Our three standard trainings cover 1)Restorative Practices basics and foundations, 2) Restorative Practices circle processes and facilitation techniques, and 3) formal conferences to create a meaningfully sustainable Restorative Practices culture within the school.
We work alongside and empower identified staff to link Restorative Practices to the goals of the school through a process of creating a vision, overcoming roadblocks and developing new skills.
The overall focus of our approach is to build capacity. We work with school leaders to maintain and institutionalize Restorative Practices by integrating its practices into the classroom, discipline system, school policies and overall school culture.
To inquire about the opportunity of bringing Restorative Practices to your Colorado school, please contact the Restorative Practices Coordinator at 303.865.5624.
Restorative Practices concepts and practices have been used to build community and resolve conflict in indigenous cultures, including the Maori people of New Zealand, Native American tribes in the U.S., the Mayan people of Guatemala, and many others for thousands of years. Modern Western communities are beginning to call on these age-old practices as a new process to build strong and safe communities and resolve conflict through face to face interactions. In the 1970s the criminal justice system and K-12 schools in the United States began to use Restorative Practices to address community and school climate and offenses.
Restorative Practices are rooted in the principle that everyone has the capacity to build relationships and resolve conflict restoratively with training, practice, support, and time. Therefore, anyone can benefit from learning about
Restorative Practices. Restorative Practices are non–denominational and inclusive of all identities. Teachers, students, and school administrators can use Restorative Practices on campus. Restorative Practices are employed within the criminal justice system by police officers, probation, public defenders, district attorneys, and judges. We can use a restorative approach with our families, neighbors, and colleagues.
Restorative Practices are about creating stronger communities and cultivating relationships. Within schools, Restorative Practices has been successful in helping youth and adults communicate more effectively, minimizing student truancy, reducing school conflict, and lowering suspension and expulsion rates. Lower rates of suspensions and expulsions have also been found to increase the academic scores of non-suspended students. Additionally, students that go to schools with lower suspension rates have higher end of year math and English scores.
Restorative Justice (RJ), began in the criminal justice system and is an approach to problem-solving that is based around three basic concepts:
Restorative practices (RP) is a social science that studies, that has built upon the philosophy of Restorative Justice and includes a range of fields outside of the criminal justice system. RP is used to improve and repair relationships between people and communities. The purpose is to build healthy communities, increase social capital, decrease crime and antisocial behavior, repair harm and restore relationships
Restorative Practices is often used interchangeably with Restorative Justice.
The term community, as used in Restorative Practices, is not limited to a physical or geographic region. Rather, it is defined as members who have been directly or indirectly impacted by harm. In an education context, community may include:
Restorative Practices Program statistics and information are drawn from the following resources:
Ashley, J., & Burke, K. (2009). Implementing restorative justice: A guide for schools. Chicago, IL: Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority. Armour, M. (2013).
Ed White Middle School restorative discipline evaluation: Implementation and impact, 2012/2013 sixth grade. Austin: University of Texas, Austin. Baker, M. L., Sigmon, J. N., & Nugent, M. E. (2001).
Truancy reduction: Keeping students in school (electronic version). Juvenile Justice Bulletin. Available from http://www.childtrends.org/?indicators=student-absenteeism#_edn4 Baker, M. (2009). DPS Restorative Justice Project: Year three. Denver, CO: Denver Public Schools.
Blood, P. (2005, August). The Australian context: Restorative practices as a platform for cultural change in schools. Paper presented at the XIV World Congress of Criminology, Philadelphia, PA.
Dinkes, R., Kemp, J., & Baum, K. (2009). Indicators of school crime and safety: 2008 (NCES 2009- 022/NCJ 226343). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Educational Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, and Bureau of Justice Statistics, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice.
Fabelo, T., Thompson, M. D., Plotkin, M., Carmichael, D., Marchbanks, M. P., III, & Booth, E. A. (2011). Breaking schools’ rules: A statewide study of how school discipline relates to students’ success and juvenile justice involvement. New York: Council of State Governments.
Guckenburg, S., Hurley, N., Persson, H., Fronius, T., & Petrosino, A. (2015). Restorative justice in U.S. schools: Summary findings from interviews with experts. San Francisco: WestEd. Available from http://jprc.wested.org/new-report-restorative-justice-in-u-s-schools-summary-findings/
Hopkins, B. (2002). Restorative justice in schools. Support for Learning, 17(3), 144–149
Lewis, S. (2009). Improving school climate: Findings from schools implementing restorative practices. Bethlehem, PA: International Institute for Restorative Practices.
Norris, A. (2009). Gender and race effects of a restorative justice intervention on school success (Conference papers). American Society of Criminology,
Schiff, M. (2013). Dignity, disparity and desistance: Effective restorative justice strategies to plug the school-to-prison pipeline. Boca Raton: Florida Atlantic University School of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Schiff, M., & Bazemore, G. (2012). Whose kids are these? Juvenile justice and education partnerships using restorative justice to end the school-to-prison pipeline. In National leadership summit on school-justice partnerships: Keeping kids in school and out of courts (pp. 68–82). New York: New York State Permanent Commission on Justice for Children.
Sherman, L. W., & Strang, H. (2007). Restorative justice: The evidence. London: Smith Institute.
Sumner, D., Silverman, C., & Frampton, M. (2010). School-based restorative justice as an alternative to zero-tolerance policies: Lessons from West Oakland. Berkeley: University of California, Berkeley, School of Law.
Zehr, H. (2002). The little book of restorative justice. Intercourse, PA: Good Books
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