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

Integrating Restorative Practices Into a Positive Behavior Support Framework

Donna Douglas, School Psychologist FCPSDaniel 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

Objectives

Restorative Practices(A Brief Overview)

• Traditional– School rules violated– Justice focuses on

establishing guilt– Accountability=Punishm

ent– 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

Restorative Practices

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 PracticesARE

- 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 PracticesARE 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


Restorative Practiceshttp://www.iirp.org/westphilahigh/

http://www.iirp.org/westphilahigh/

Positive Behavior Support

(A Brief Overview)

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 forAll Students,Staff, & Settings

Secondary Prevention:Specialized GroupSystems for Students with At-Risk Behavior

Tertiary Prevention:Specialized IndividualizedSystems for Students with High-Risk Behavior

~80% of Students

~15%

~5%

CONTINUUM OFSCHOOL-WIDE INSTRUCTIONAL & POSITIVE BEHAVIORSUPPORT

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.

Putting It All Together

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


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


INTENSIVEREPAIRING HARMCONFERENCING

TARGETED GROUP INTERVENTION

TAKING RESPONSIBILITYProblem Solving Circles

UNIVERSAL PRACTICESDEVELOPING SOCIAL/EMOTIONAL CAPACITY

CIRCLES

Integration of RP and PBS

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.

Universal Practices

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.

Targeted Intervention

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.

Intensive Intervention

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.

Intensive Intervention

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: The Steps

- Conferencing may be used for:- Interpersonal conflicts (student-student;

student-staff; staff-staff)- Bullying/Harrassment- Fighting/Assault- Vandalism- Theft- Truancy- Drug/Alcohol Use- Etc.

Conferencing (con’t)

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?

Things to Consider

What are your strategies for addressing these roadblocks?

Develop an Action Plan. Schedule time to follow-up, review, and

adjust.

Things to Consider (con’t)

Restorative Practices can enhance Positive Behavior Support by building a focus on

respect and relationships into the system.

Remember……

Documents

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