Here's Why Restorative Practices Don't Work for School Discipline

Here's why restorative practices do not work for school discipline.

You might have seen books like this one or this one or this one that claim that restorative practices can replace traditional progressive discipline.

But we've known that this does not work for a long time now.

This article is from 2019 and reviews some of the evidence that was available at that time that says restorative practices do not replace progressive discipline effectively so here are 10 reasons why first restorative practices are for mediating conflict not addressing behavior problems and using restorative practices in a discipline context puts the perpetrator and the victim on equal footing and that is not the situation we want to be putting students in if they are bullied if they are being victimized by someone else This is not a conflict between the students that needs to be resolved.

It is something else entirely.

Third, students catch on.

Students are smart and they realize that if there are no consequences, they can continue behaving however they want with impunity.

Talking to an adult is not a consequence.

And when I hear educators talking about restorative practices, often what they mean is the only consequence for bad behavior is you get to have a conversation with an adult.

And depending on the student, that may even be reinforcing.

Number four, restorative practices assume that bad behavior stems from a lack of knowledge or skill that can be addressed through teaching.

Here's the thing, students already know what is acceptable behavior and what is not.

There is not a knowledge or skill deficit when it comes to behavior.

There is a lack of consequences that is contributing to that behavior.

Number five, restorative practices focus on repairing the harm.

And as much as we hear that phrase, it's not a real thing.

You cannot unpunch someone.

You cannot unharass someone.

Repairing the harm is a better sounding version of apologizing.

But of course, apologizing is not enough when a student is harming someone.

There need to be consequences.

Number six, restorative practices force victims to accept apologies that may not be sincere or accompanied by real behavior change.

And as a result, restorative practices fail to protect others and the environment.

It is a fundamental principle of human relations that when someone acts destructively, they need to be excluded for a time.

If you cheat in a game, you're out.

If you ruin the party, you don't get invited to the next one.

If you hurt other people at school, you need to be suspended.

Number eight, bad behavior only changes in response to consequences.

If a student is not behaving in an acceptable manner, teaching cannot fix it.

It's consequences that do the quote unquote teaching.

Number nine, restorative practices are not trauma informed.

If you expose students to violence or otherwise terrible behavior over and over and never have real consequences, that is not trauma informed.

That is re-traumatizing our most traumatized students.

Number 10, using restorative practices instead of progressive discipline is now known to make things worse.

We have the research, we have the evidence.

Academics get worse, behavior gets worse, and students get suspended for worse behaviors rather than having an appropriate consequence for lower level behaviors.

So if you want to learn more about progressive discipline, everything we have is free at principalcenter.com slash pd.