Restorative Practices Overview #1 Spokane Public Schools Restore Relationships Build Community Repair Harm Restorative Practices Overview #1 Spokane Public Schools The three big ideas behind Restorative Practices are: Building Community, Repairing the Harm after a conflict, and Restoring Relationships. Restorative Practices is part of the new Discipline Policy 3240. Lets think about how Restorative Practices can work in our school.

Defining a Restorative Approach “… a process to involve, to the extent possible, those who have a stake in a specific conflict and to collectively identify and address harms, needs and obligations, in order to heal and put things as right as possible.” - Howard Zehr from The Little Book of Restorative Justice This is a definition of Restorative Justice. The original concept of Restorative Justice comes from Native people of North America and New Zealand. “Restorative Justice” is the term used by the Justice system to make things as right as possible after a law has been broken. Read definition. Today schools are taking a “Restorative Justice” approach, calling it “Restorative Practices” to create a safe school environment Restorative Practices is the term SPS will be using for a 3 tiered approach to prevent or reduce conflicts, respond to conflicts in a positive manner, and resolve conflicts after they have occurred; or after discipline has been assigned.

Two Different Views of Misbehaviors Historical View Restorative View Violations are of school rules Discipline process establishes guilt Accountability assigns consequence or punishment Violations are of relationships and sense of community Identifies needs and obligations of all Accountability means understanding impact and repairing the harm When comparing “then” to “now”, you can see a paradigm shift. The historical view is necessary, but not always effective in changing behavior. Read the “Two Views”. The Restorative approach puts major accountability on the individual who created the harm as well as the involvement of those who were harmed. This is a major change from exclusionary discipline that can put students behind and breaks the relationship. Often this approach is not supported by families or the community.

Three Questions Past practice Restorative practice What rules were broken? Who did it? What do they deserve? “punishment” Who has been hurt? (relationships damaged) What are needs of all involved? How can all agree on a way to repair the harm? These are the three questions that can be used to compare past practices to restorative practices. Read the three questions. Ask: “What do you think the advantages of a restorative approach?” Ask for three responses……ie. The students own the behaviors, students understand the impact of their actions, it identifies unmet needs, gets at more of the root cause of the misbehaviors.

Restorative Strategies for Schools Affective Statements Restorative Dialogue Restorative Conferences Repairing the Harm Circles Community Building Circles Mediation Restorative Practice in Action San Francisco Unified School District Video Restorative Strategies for Schools Now we are going to see a 10 min video from the SFUSD. It shares a k-12 approach where restorative practices are used at all levels and many ways. You will hear staff, parents, and students talk about these strategies. Listen for common language and common themes. After the video you can ask: “what were the common themes you heard” trust, accountability, problem solving, common language, build community, relationships………  https://youtu.be/bOIj6ZLOwWM

Why Implement Restorative Practices? It defines our learning community with a sense of belonging and strong relationships. It sees conflict as opportunities to improve relationships. It teaches problem solving, cooperation and accountability. Why use Restorative Practices? 1.) Builds community…gives all students a sense of belonging. Belonging is a basic need and important for learning to happen. 2.) Conflicts happen each and every day. The question is how are we going to respond to the conflict? It can be seen as opportunity to understand POV and make agreements to improve relationships and the school experience. 3.) It is an applied life skill of problem solving, working together, and taking responsibility.

Three Tiers Responding to Conflict Conflict Resolution Formal Conferencing Repairing Harm Circles Responding to Conflict Making Agreements Mediations Conflict Resolution Circles This is how Restorative Practices is part of PBIS. You can see by taking this approach, we can reduce conflicts, respond to conflicts and use restorative practices after corrective action has been taken. Today we started with Affective language and Restorative Dialogue. Additional training and resources are becoming available soon for additional strategies. Classroom Practices to Reduce Conflict and Build Relationships Affective Statements Restorative Questions Classroom Circles

Affective Statements A statement expressing…. how you feel and how you were affected by the behavior. For example: “Stop Talking” vs. “I’m frustrated when I try to speak to the class and people keep talking, it would be helpful if everyone would please stop” For example: “If I see your phone again it’s mine” vs. “I’m disappointed that I have to keep reminding you about your phone…” Affective language is used to model communication where feelings are expressed in a thoughtful way that does not blame or shame. It shows teachers are human and shows students how their actions affect others, which also helps students develop empathy. Affective statements are a good way to start a restorative dialogue. Be invitational and welcoming to students when problem solving. It is a shared problem between teacher and student; not just the student for the problem.

Making Affective Statements Typical Response Affective Statement Stop teasing Shelley. It makes me uncomfortable when I hear students being teased. Please stop. Sit down and be quiet. I get upset when there is talking and joking around when I trying to teach. I don’t want to hear you arguing with him anymore. Just walk away. I feel sad that you are not resolving your conflict in a positive way. Here are more examples of Affective statements vs. Typical Responses. Affective statements gives adults an opportunity to share their feelings which helps to humanize and build the relationships. Use Affective Statement before the Restorative Dialogue For example: “I have a problem with the class being too loud and I need your help”.

How Restorative Practices Fit with our School Discipline Plan Policy 3240: Student Behavior, Rules of Conduct, Restorative Practices and Corrective Action (Adopted August 2016) “The Board believes that a responsible, respectful and safe environment … is strengthened when … Effective restorative practices are used to prevent and respond to misbehaviors.” HB 1541: Student Discipline recently signed legislation that addresses suspensions/expulsions, re- entry conferences, disproportionality, data reporting, training and education services must be provided This year we have a new Policy 3240 where restorative practices are suggested to be used to prevent and respond to misbehaviors. Read the policy for there is a very good overview of restorative practices. The policy also references the use of corrective action. Out of school suspension can and will be used, but research tells us the down side of this approach. Students fall behind, relationships are broken, and trust with families are affected. We also see disproportionality in the data of who is being suspended. This is a community concern. Last spring HB1541 was signed into law and significantly redefined student discipline. This will change how discipline is done in the state of Washington. OSPI Data reports have shown the out of school suspension rate for SPS is twice as high as the state average. We all can do our part to improve and using Restorative Practices will help our efforts.

Restorative Practice is a Compass, Not a Map Reflection Questions It’s a compass and not a map. Restorative Practices gives us an approach and a belief/philosophy about how to include all students to build community, enhance relationships and resolve conflicts in a positive way. Consider these questions. 5 min discussion. Report out. How are restorative practices different than past discipline practices? What do you believe are the strengths of restorative practices? What are your wonders?