Promoting School Connectedness Through Restorative Practices

At a glance

  • Restorative practices are strategies that build and maintain meaningful relationships, and processes that repair those relationships when damaged.
  • Restorative practices promote school connectedness by building respect, empathy, and trust.
  • School connectedness promotes student mental and physical health. It also helps build safe, healthy, and thriving school communities.
A diverse group of high school students in classroom.

Overview

Many schools are looking for ways to strengthen relationships and belonging, address challenging behaviors, and promote student and staff well-being. Restorative practices are an evidence-informed approach that can help schools take action toward these goals.

Restorative practices include:

Strategies

Build and maintain meaningful relationships.

Processes

Repair relationships when damaged.

In education, restorative practices are a way of thinking, being, and interacting that promotes a safer, more supportive learning environment.

Rooted in Indigenous traditions, restorative practices prioritize trust, belonging, accountability, and healing.

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Promoting Healthy School Communities Through Restorative Practices
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Keep Reading: School Connectedness Helps Students Thrive

How it works

Within schools, restorative practices can be:

  • Informal or formal.
  • Used in a single building or districtwide.
  • Used proactively to build skills, relationships, and trust.
  • Used responsively to address conflict in a way that helps repair harm.

Tip‎

It is important to proactively develop restorative practices—and not just use these approaches when issues arise.

Specific practices

Specific restorative practices include the following:

Focus on understanding feelings and emotions, building trust, and fostering empathy.

  • "I feel concerned when only some students are participating. Let's work together to make sure everyone feels comfortable sharing."
  • "How did it feel when you successfully solved that problem?"

Use affective language to do the following:

  • Build connections.
  • Address minor classroom disruptions and behaviors, like disagreements between students.
  • Support problem-solving.
  • Build communication and social skills.

Structured discussions can build connections and strengthen relationships. These discussions are facilitated to create a safe, supportive, and equitable space where all voices are heard and valued.

Proactive circles help people practice empathy, communication, and active listening. Circles can be used in many ways, including:

  • Building community.
  • Setting classroom expectations.
  • Delivering course content.
  • Celebrating successes.
  • Processing traumatic events.

These structured conversations are meant to address more serious conflicts, behavioral issues, or incidents of harm within the school community.

Formal conferences require time and preparation, bringing together the people affected by an incident. This may include the student(s) who caused harm, the student(s) who was harmed, school staff, and family members.

The aim is to discuss how people were affected and collectively develop a plan to repair relationships. Rather than focusing solely on punishment, conferences emphasize personal accountability, repair, and community healing.

Exclusionary (punitive) approaches ask:

  • What rule was broken?
  • Who did it?
  • What punishment do they deserve?

Restorative Practices ask:

  • What happened?
  • How were people affected?
  • What needs to happen to make things right?

These structured conversations are meant to support and reintegrate students into the school community, often following a suspension or expulsion. Reentry circles include the student, and people who might be able to provide support during the return to school.

Tip‎

Reentry circles might include teachers, other school staff, family members, and other students.

These circles aim to support a smooth transition back to school by rebuilding relationships and discussing ways to address challenges.

Benefits of restorative practices

A female teacher explaining how to use a camera to high school students in classroom.
Restorative practices take time. Implementation may take 3–5 years before there is an observable effect on student outcomes.

  • Students with more exposure to restorative practices report higher levels of school connectedness and more positive peer relationships.
  • Students are more academically engaged and have better academic outcomes when learning environments are safe and supportive.
  • When students feel strongly connected to their peers and teachers, they are less likely to report experiencing violence, risky sexual behavior, substance use, and poor mental health.
  • Some schools rely on exclusionary discipline, such as suspension and expulsion, to address behavior. These schools are less likely to be described by teachers, school staff, and students as safe and supportive.
  • Exclusionary discipline increases students' future risk for involvement with the justice system, substance use, and unemployment.
  • Students of color and students with disabilities are suspended and expelled at higher rates than other students. This disproportionately increases the risk for negative educational and health outcomes.

  • Strengthen relationships between students and teachers.
  • Improve overall perceptions of school climate.
  • Improve teachers' perceptions that the school and classroom environment are supportive of teaching and learning.
  • Increase students' problem-solving and conflict resolution skills.
  • Reduce student absenteeism.
  • Reduce disruptive behaviors, out-of-school suspensions, and discipline referrals.
  • Reduce disparities in disciplinary actions.

Using restorative practices in school

Restorative practices provide a balance of high accountability and high support. These practices are grounded in the principle that people are happier, healthier, more cooperative, and more likely to make positive changes in their behavior when:

  • They are part of decision-making.
  • People in positions of authority do things with them, rather than to or for them.

Example applications

The following examples show what restorative practices can look like in practice.

Non-Restorative

Teachers create rules that students must follow and communicate expectations to students.

Restorative Practices

  • Teachers and students create classroom rules and expectations together.
  • Impromptu conversations and proactive circles are held regularly to discuss minor challenges, monitor progress, and make changes.

Non-Restorative

Students receive consequences based on the severity of their actions, which have been outlined in rules set by the teacher at the start of the year or described in the student handbook.

Restorative Practices

  • When expectations are not met, students are invited to participate in formal restorative conferences.
  • Formal restorative conferences are held with other students, adults, and family members, as appropriate.
  • Students are supported in describing the effects of their actions, taking responsibility for their actions, identifying ways to restore trust, and deciding on consequences.

Non-Restorative

Leadership describes the new practice or policy and sets dates for when it goes into effect.

Restorative Practices

  • Leadership actively engages staff, students, and families throughout the process, from identifying practices and policies to their implementation.
  • Trained facilitators hold proactive circles with the wider school community to brainstorm ideas, share needs, discuss minor challenges, and problem-solve. These actions provide both support and accountability in implementing the practice or policy.

Reflection questions for school and district leadership

Here are some key questions to consider as you get started:

  • Consider ways to gauge teacher and staff awareness of restorative practices.
  • Determine buy-in by the school community, including students.
  • Determine resources needed for implementation.

  • Identify implementation champions to help build momentum and model approaches.
  • Some staff may already be using restorative practices and may be interested in mentoring others.

  • Staff may need training to develop knowledge and ongoing support to build skills.

  • Consider how restorative practices align with your approach to promote social, emotional, and behavioral learning. Then discuss the benefits with students and families.

  • Consider how you will look at questions of equity in who has access to restorative practices.
  • Perhaps use disciplinary data to reveal disparities in implementation of restorative practices.

  • Consider the procedures and policies that can ensure staff have enough time and resources to effectively use restorative practices.

  • Consider training students as peer facilitators.
  • Use restorative practices (affective language, proactive circles) when engaging families.

Resources

For more information on how restorative practices have been used, see these implementation toolkits and guides.

These resources describe ways to implement restorative practices in schools, including step-by-step instructions, timelines, lesson plans, and rubrics.

Disclaimer‎‎

The conclusions in these materials are those of the organization(s)/author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Content Source:
Adolescent and School Health; National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
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