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Practices (RP)
Restorative
What
Are Restorative Practices (RP)?
Restorative practices are a set of processes, strategies, and tools that help us create a caring school community and keep that community whole. The premise is that people and relationships are valued first and foremost. When people make mistakes or cause harm, restorative practices can help them to understand the impact of their actions, heal the harm, and restore the community.
Restorative practices offer a positive alternative to the punitive forms of discipline leading to the disproportionately harsh discipline of students of color and thus created the “school to prison pipeline” that continues to plague schools of the 21st century. These practices enable both young people and adults to develop skills to resolve conflicts and problem-solve, and repair harm in restorative ways rather than impose punishment.
Restorative practices transform school environments from punitive and retributive to restorative and healing. When done explicitly, intentionally, and consistently, RP benefits all of the stakeholder groups.
Holistic Approach
We believe that the foundation of school success is built upon a student-centered, positive, safe learning environment with strong relationships as its main cornerstone. We give attention to the entire school community and recognize that each stakeholder group is an important piece of the overall school climate. We analyze each school community to develop and tailor-make an effective and relevant school climate action plan. We seek to give voice, visibility, agency, and value to every member of the school community.
We use transformative, restorative, intentional processes and practices as the foundation of our evidence-based and comprehensive framework with an interwoven alignment of explicit Best Practices that include:
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Restorative Practices (RP) / Restorative Justice (RJ)
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Social-Emotional Learning & Wellness (SELW)
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Emotional Intelligence / Emotional Quotient (EI/EQ)
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Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging (DEIB)
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Cultural Competence (CC) / Cultural Humility (CH)
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Positive Behavioral Interventions & Support (PBIS)
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Bullying Prevention
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Benefits
RP Practices for Educators
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Restorative Practices (RP) is an ongoing process with an underpinning that benefits all stakeholder groups. RP represents a paradigm shift in the modus operandi of education, transitioning from a punitive to a positive perspective. Following these best practices provides additional levels of prevention, intervention, and postvention of challenging behaviors and sets the foundation for win-win, collaborative situations between students and mentors. RP sets up opportunities to increase communication, respect, responsibility, and accountability on many levels.
The goal of RP is to create a sense of belonging and inclusion for all parties, which establishes a cohesive school culture and climate conducive to teaching, learning, and student achievement. The bedrock principles of RP include relationship-building, community cohesion, restoration, reparation, and reintegration.
There are many multi-faceted elements addressed within the constructs of RP, including anti-harassment, intimidation & bullying (HIB), social-emotional learning & wellness (SELW), organizational culture, humility and belonging, character education, conflict resolution, and school safety, to name a few.
With an effective RP community there are many benefits including, but not limited to: absenteeism is reduced, recidivism is minimized, disciplinary intervention is minimized, instruction is prioritized, student engagement is increased, test scores are improved, safety is maintained, the code of conduct is supported, accountability is established and the opportunity for student and school success is created and enhanced.
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