Restorative practices help students understand the impact of their actions.

These practices are effective for addressing problematic student behavior. These practices also help students learn from their mistakes rather than simply being punished for their actions.

There are consequences for misbehavior and inappropriate actions. However, learning that actions can cause harm and how to repair that harm will lead to long-term changes in behavior. 

Restorative practices in schools can look like:

• Using "I" (affective) statements
  •  Brief statements to make someone aware of the impact of their behavior (positive or negative) to another individual
• Active listening
  • Redirects the listener’s focus from what is going on inside their head to the needs of the speaker
• Community-building circles (reentry)
  • Builds empathy among the students and reduces negative attacking behaviors that can exist in classrooms.
• Setting classroom norms
  • Student-driven values created as a community help lead to increased buy-in.
• Daily morning meetings
  • Develops relationships with students, assesses their social and emotional thinking, and determines the direction and focus of the instructional day.
• Goal-setting with students
  • students take ownership of areas they would like to improve (academically or socially), and they set realistic and attainable goals for themselves.
• Curiosity questioning
  • genuine questions asked to learn more about someone's situation and helps go beyond the surface of an issue and into helping to resolve a conflict.
• Restorative chats
  • used when students do not meet the norms that were established in the classroom and is centered on the following five questions:
    • What happened?
    • What were you thinking at the time?
    • What have you thought about since?
    • Who (and in what way) has been affected by what you have done?
    • What do you think you need to do to make things right?
• Goal conferences
  • The teacher can check in to see if students are on track to meet their goals, and students learn to self-check and refocus as needed.

First and foremost, restorative practices support relationship development and repair, focus on student autonomy, and rely less heavily on harsh punishments alone in favor of healthy dialogue to resolve conflicts and appropriate consequences.

1. In restorative environments, everyone grows, learns, and values themselves and others. Instilling an understanding and value of each individual is key.
2. In a restorative practices’ design, implementation and refinement of the program is responsive to and tailored for the community (Classroom).
3. All individuals learn from harmful behaviors and seek to be more proactive and affirming with themselves and community members. Fostering a sense of community, accountability, belonging, and responsibility of self and for others is extremely important.