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=understandi
ng 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 Practices
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
Restorative Practices
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.
Restorative Practices
Repair: Individuals agree to repair harm that has been done.
Prevention: Individuals learn from their mistakes.
Restorative Practices
Restorative Practices
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 Practices
Restorative Practiceshttp://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
Positive Behavior Support
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
Positive Behavior Support
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.
Putting It All Together
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
Putting It All Together
INTENSIVE
REPAIRING HARM
CONFERENCING
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……