Schools
The American Federation of Teachers — one of the nation’s largest unions — takes on the issue of racial justice using restorative practices.
Daniel Losen, director of Center for Civil Rights Remedies at the University of California, Los Angeles, discusses "Practices that create accountable and restorative discipline" during an in-depth multi-part interview with Engaging Schools.
WestEd, a nonprofit research, development and service agency that works to improve education, asks, "What Further Research is Needed on Restorative Justice in Schools?"
A new report by The Advancement Project, the Alliance for Quality Education, Citizen Action of New York and the Public Policy and Education Fund reveals that "Buffalo, NY, Schools’ new code of conduct results in more days in school, fewer suspensions."
A new analysis by the University of Pennsylvania finds "Higher Expulsion Rates for Black Students," according to the New York Times. Listen to National Public Radio's coverage of this news. Meanwhile, parents and advocates speak out again discriminatory discipline policies in Virginia schools.
In "Deconstructing school discipline," public radio program Science Friday convenes a panel of child psychologists and educational policy experts to discuss how rethinking discipline and punishment could prevent the alienation of students and break down the link between schools and prisons.
IIRP Lecturer Elizabeth Smull will present at the Tennessee Department of Education Office of Healthy, Safe and Supportive Schools 2015 Learning Forum. She will also return to the International Bullying Prevention Association (IBPA) Annual Conference to be held in Denver November 8-10 to present a pre-conference workshop and breakout session on restorative practices.
Restorative practices are being used in more and more schools throughout the U.S. Here are a few examples that came to our attention this month:
- San Diego, CA (cuts suspensions by 60%)
- Hamilton, OH
- Waco, TX
- Rochester, NY
- Beloit, WI (PBIS program to incorporate restorative practices)
- Santa Ana, CA
- Jefferson Parish, LA (prompted by employees and complaints by the Southern Poverty Law Center)
- Springdale, AK
- The State of Illinois (Governor signs sweeping school discipline bill championed by students)
ASCD (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) releases Better Than Carrots or Sticks: Restorative Practices for Positive Classroom Management, a new book co-authored by Dominique Smith of San Diego Health Sciences High and Middle College who credits the IIRP with making the book possible.
Triumph of the Heart: Forgiveness in an Unforgiving World, by Megan Feldman Bettencourt, has just been released by Penguin Random House. It includes chapters on restorative practices and how it’s being implemented in schools.
Video: Student-led parent-teacher conferences!
Justice
A new U.S. Department of Justice Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) study finds that severe punishment, such as correctional placement, does not meaningfully reduce juvenile offending.
IIRP Europe's Vidia Negrea (second from left) at the International Conference on Restorative Justice in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
IIRP Europe's Vidia Negrea (Hungary) recently spoke in Dhaka, Bangladesh, at the International Conference on Restorative Justice, raising awareness of restorative practices' impact in everyday life. Her presentation inspired civilians and legal professionals to begin using the practices with families, communities and workplaces. Speakers and facilitators included John Braithwaite (Australia), Ali Gohar (Pakistan), Jeremy Symons (Philippines), M. Asadullah (Canada) and Kim Smith (UK).
How schools push black students to the criminal justice system: New research that looked at data on 60,000 students in 6,000 districts finds, "White kids tend to get viewed as having ADHD, or having some sort of behavioral problem. Black kids are viewed as being unruly and unwilling to learn."
Read news about restorative justice programs in Cook County, IL, Minneapolis, MN, Fairbanks, AL (Tribal Court Development Conference), at Skidmore College, NY and in the nation of India.
The Role of Community in Restorative Justice, a new book by Dr. Fernanda Fonseca Rosenblatt that offers an empirical and theoretical explanation of what "community involvement" means and what work it does in restorative justice, has been published by Routledge.
Family and Community
Joe Brummer gives advice on restorative parenting contrasted with the conventional wisdom on raising teen and young urban males.
Wanganui, New Zealand, hosts "Neighbourhood Community Circles" for people to talk together about the challenges and opportunities that affect them as a community.
A disabled woman who was evicted from her trailer park seeks restorative justice through the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission.
At TedX Honolulu, native Hawaiian Mike Patterson provided and indigenous perspective on justice and social services: "We have to change our thinking from modalities of punishment to modalities of transformation and change."
