Donna Douglas, School Psychologist FCPS Daniel St. Rose, School Social Worker FCPS Karen Lieberman, Alt. School Programs FCPS

 Provide a Brief Overview of Restorative Practices.  Provide a Brief Overview of Positive Behavior Support  Review how Restorative Practices fit into a PBS framework  Provide specific examples of how Restorative Practices can be used at each level of intervention in the PBS framework

Traditional – School rules violated – Justice focuses on establishing guilt – Accountability=Punishment – Action focuses on offender – Victim is often ignored – Rules and intent outweigh outcomes – No opportunities for remorse or amends Restorative – People and relationships violated – Justice identifies needs and obligations – Accountability=understand ing impact and repairing harm – Offender, victim, and school all have direct roles – Offender is responsible for behavior and repairing harm – Allows for amends and expression of remorse

 Emphasizes harms and resulting obligations  Keeps the victims’ needs/interests central  Encourages offenders to understand and take responsibility for harm  Involves dialogue and the community  Promotes individual and societal healing and growth

Restorative Practices ARE - Victim centered and victim sensitive - A vehicle for victims to have a voice - An opportunity for taking responsibility for your actions - A vehicle for offenders to listen to those affected by their actions - An opportunity to learn how to start changing behavior Restorative Practices ARE NOT - Soft on offenders - A way for the offender to avoid consequences - Only for juveniles or less serious offenses - New processes - The opposite of or substitute for an existing system

Harm focused: How have individuals been harmed and what do they need? ◦ Identify, repair and prevent future harm. Engagement: Victim, offender, community, and school are engaged through a facilitated dialogue process. Responsibility/Obligations: Individuals accept responsibility for their actions.

Repair: Individuals agree to repair harm that has been done. Prevention: Individuals learn from their mistakes.

A student misbehaves in class and her teacher asks her to leave. The student is suspended from school and comes back. Nothing is resolved; nothing is restored. With restorative practices, the student is held accountable and given support to resolve the issue, repair the harm and make a plan to ensure that the misbehavior doesn’t happen again. Relationships are restored and community is built. Ted Wachtel, International Institute for Restorative Practices

 Designed to support and reinforce positive academic and social behavior through comprehensive systems  Focuses on teaching children positive pro- social skills directly in real context  Supports positive relationships between students, teachers, staff and parents.  When used in a comprehensive manner, combines classroom, school, home and community efforts

Primary Prevention: School-/Classroom- Wide Systems for All Students, Staff, & Settings Secondary Prevention: Specialized Group Systems for Students with At-Risk Behavior Tertiary Prevention: Specialized Individualized Systems for Students with High-Risk Behavior ~80% of Students ~15% ~5% CONTINUUM OF SCHOOL-WIDE INSTRUCTIONAL & POSITIVE BEHAVIOR SUPPORT

Red Zone: intensive, individual interventions, assessment-based Yellow Zone: targeted group interventions, focus on “at risk” students Green Zone: universal practices, focus on “all students”, pro-active teaching and prevention

 PBS gives schools the structure within which to teach and reinforce positive pro-social skills, and to consistently provide intervention designed to increase the demonstration of these skills.  RP give schools the opportunity to focus on repairing relationships rather than focusing on punitive responses.

 RP is not an add-on program, nor is it solely a group of graded responses to wrongdoing.  Using RP within the PBS framework allows a school to focus on building, supporting, and repairing critical emotional and social skills in students, staff, and community.

Restorative Practices  Involves dialogue and the community  Promotes individual and societal healing and growth  Encourages offenders to understand and take responsibility for harm  Emphasizes harms and resulting obligations  Keeps the victims’ needs/interests central Positive Behavior Support  Supports and reinforces positive academic and social behavior through comprehensive systems  Focuses on teaching children positive pro- social skills directly in real context  Supports positive relationships between students, teachers, staff and parents.  When used in a comprehensive manner, combines classroom, school, home and community efforts

Circles - Circles are used throughout RP in a variety of forms and for numerous purposes. - At the Universal Practices level, circles typically focus on increasing community and social/emotional understanding. - Purposes might include community building, developing understanding, celebration, support, community problem solving, checking in and checking out, etc.

Problem Solving Circles - Focus is on taking responsibility - Can be on-going or time limited - Identify potential members using PBS data - Interview members to ensure understanding and willingness to participate - Topics or concerns to address might include: attendance issues, failing grades, non-compliance, girls groups, bullying, reintegration etc.

Conferencing - Conferencing is the most formal restorative process and can be used to supplement or supplant other traditional remedies such as suspension. - Involves all parties directly involved, their respective supporters and others in the community who have been affected.

Conferencing (con’t) - Seeks to identify and repair harm caused in a relationship and prevent recurrence. - Participation is voluntary and based on parties willingness and readiness. - Agreements are consensus-based.

1. Pre-conferencing – occurs separately with each party. 2. Identification and preparation of supporters and other involved parties. 3. Conference – may lead to agreement to take additional remedial actions. 4. Follow-up.

- Conferencing may be used for: -Interpersonal conflicts (student-student; student- staff; staff-staff) -Bullying/Harrassment -Fighting/Assault -Vandalism -Theft -Truancy -Drug/Alcohol Use - Etc.

 What are the needs in your building?  To what level do your current practices reflect a restorative philosophy?  What would you like to see in your program?  How will your current practices need to change in order to reflect what you would like to see?  What might be the roadblocks to change?

 What are your strategies for addressing these roadblocks?  Develop an Action Plan.  Schedule time to follow-up, review, and adjust.

Restorative Practices can enhance Positive Behavior Support by building a focus on respect and relationships into the system.