Integrating Restorative Practices Into a Positive Behavior Support Framework

1. Integrating Restorative Practices Into a Positive Behavior Support Framework Donna Douglas, School Psychologist FCPS Daniel St. Rose, School Social Worker FCPS Karen Lieberman, Alt. School Programs FCPS

2. Objectives • 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

3. Restorative Practices(A Brief Overview)

4. Restorative Practices • Restorative • People and relationships violated • Justice identifies needs and obligations • Accountability=understanding 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 • Traditional • School rules violated • Justice focuses on establishing guilt • Accountability=Punishment • Action focuses on offender • Victim is often ignored • Rules and intent outweigh outcomes • No opportunities for remorse or amends

5. 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

6. Restorative Practices Restorative Practices ARE 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 ARE • 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

7. 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.

8. Restorative Practices Repair: Individuals agree to repair harm that has been done. Prevention: Individuals learn from their mistakes.

9. Restorative Practices

10. 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

11. Restorative Practices http://www.iirp.org/westphilahigh/

12. Positive Behavior Support(A Brief Overview)

13. Positive Behavior Support • 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

14. Tertiary Prevention: Specialized Individualized Systems for Students with High-Risk Behavior CONTINUUM OF SCHOOL-WIDE INSTRUCTIONAL & POSITIVE BEHAVIOR SUPPORT ~5% Secondary Prevention: Specialized Group Systems for Students with At-Risk Behavior ~15% Primary Prevention: School-/Classroom- Wide Systems for All Students, Staff, & Settings ~80% of Students

15. Positive Behavior Support 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

16. Putting It All Together • 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.

17. 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.

18. Putting It All Together 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 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

19. Integration of RP and PBS

20. Universal Practices 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.

21. Targeted Intervention 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.

22. Intensive 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.

23. 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.

24. Conferencing: The Steps • Pre-conferencing – occurs separately with each party. • Identification and preparation of supporters and other involved parties. • Conference – may lead to agreement to take additional remedial actions. • Follow-up.

25. Conferencing (con’t) • Conferencing may be used for: • Interpersonal conflicts (student-student; student-staff; staff-staff) • Bullying/Harrassment • Fighting/Assault • Vandalism • Theft • Truancy • Drug/Alcohol Use - Etc.

26. Things to Consider • 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?

27. Things to Consider (con’t) • What are your strategies for addressing these roadblocks? • Develop an Action Plan. • Schedule time to follow-up, review, and adjust.

28. Remember…… Restorative Practices can enhancePositive Behavior Support by building a focus on respect and relationships into the system.