In this guest column, Smagorinsky dives into the discipline debate roiling Gwinnett County Public Schools.

Georgia Highlands College has partnered with Rehabilitation Enables Dreams to offer college access to students in the RED Restorative Justice Program.

Each time we choose to draw near, rather than to send away, we are actively building a new way to be in community together. As we model this way of being in schools, we are shining a light and showing a way for what can be possible in the community as a whole.

We cannot do restorative justice work well if we are not also fighting for racial equity in the spaces that we work. Looking through the lens of equity, we find the concept of liberation. This brings up the question, how do we grow our liberatory consciousness?

A school in Pine Bluff introduced the 'restorative room' as a way to help encourage kids to process their emotions and get through tough experiences.

In collaboration with the Restorative Justice League of Merced, the “Weaver Peacemaker Event” is an all day event that focuses on educating students to “promote kindness and build a culture of peace on campus.”

Massachusetts teacher Carrie LaPierre led her students through a restorative justice project over 300 years after the infamous Salem Witch Trials.

That predictable, structured place to safely share is critical, especially for students who want to take on society’s bigger challenges, Swearingen said. “It puts us in a spot where we can be vulnerable with each other, and because we can be vulnerable together we can be productive.”

“As a teacher in Wayne and a resident and mayor here in Montclair, I could not be prouder of the leadership that the Montclair Education Association, the Montclair Board of Education, and our students, teachers, educational support professionals, and administrators have taken in showing what restorative justice looks like in action,” [President] Spiller said.

Despite a dramatic decline in suspensions as students moved to remote learning during the pandemic, Black children and those in special education were disciplined far more often than white students and those in general education, according to a recent New York University study.

"We need programs and interventions that teach and model skills that will change behavior. Restorative practices are what can transform and guide the prosocial behaviors we want for our children and our communities."

Schools like Harvest Collegiate High School have embraced restorative justice and devoted resources to those programs.

When we’re working as a team, we can start in one direction, but we may end up in a completely different direction by the end of the year.

“History is asking us to become healers. We are so good at causing harm, at every level. We are experts at that. So I want to thank you for answering history’s call so that we will have a future for the seven generations to come.” - Dr. Fania Davis

Fremont High students are even helping young students engage in restorative justice practices.

Incarcerated people at two prisons in the Delta will be able to start earning four-year degrees from Mississippi Valley State University this fall for the first time in more than two decades.

Restorative Arlington has partnered with Arlington Public Schools (APS) to support Restorative Justice in Education. Restorative Arlington has allocated over $140,000 to provide direct services to APS, including services for students who have experienced harm as well as restorative justice training for staff and additional resources.

Criminal justice reform advocates are applauding a diversion program created to resolve the hundreds of felony cases that came out of the civil unrest that followed the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020.

Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden is piloting a restorative justice program in Chelsea District Court and the Charlestown and Roxbury divisions of Municipal Court.

Two unique programs that support Tri-City students are getting nearly $60,000 combined, thanks to proceeds of criminal activity.

School-based RP Implementation

Restorative Justice Diversion

Restorative justice was successfully used for one of the first times in Indiana to remediate a legal confrontation.

Social Change and Self Care

Shawn Ginwright writes in Yes! Magazine about Four Pivots to Reimagining Justice and Reimagining Ourselves.

RJ and Gender-based Violence

This blog explores restorative approaches to gender-based violence and the relationship between the restorative justice and transformative justice movements.

School-based Restorative Practices

Feedback from our trainings helps us strengthen them and gives us valuable insights into the needs of the communities we serve.

School-based Restorative Practices Implementation

This article, originally published in Fortune.com, explores a range of added challenges related to restorative practices implementation as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Opinion

A link to an editorial written on 12/28/21 in the New York Times from Michael Eric Dyson, reflecting on Bishop Tutu's approach to apartheid and the limited value of punishment or banishment.