Prevent the School-to-Prison Pipeline Through Restorative Justice Practices

Transition is more than just moving from high school to adulthood. Transition can also include significant shifts like moving in and out of the juvenile justice system. For some of your students, this is a particularly crucial shift.

School-related factors contributing to student involvement in the juvenile justice system include:

  • Lack of adequate positive behavioral intervention training for educators
  • Lack of a diagnosis affording appropriate services and legally mandated educational accommodations
  • Complex family dynamics or multiple systems of care involving placement in foster care
  • Zero-tolerance discipline policies that disproportionately impact students with disabilities 
  • School suspension (National Technical Assistance Center on Transition, 2018)

How can schools establish restorative practices that decrease the transition to incarceration for students with disabilities?

Luke Dalien, founder of Special Ed Resource.com, describes restorative practice as a process that builds healthy relationships and community in your classroom to help prevent conflict and misbehavior. Restorative practice enables transition professionals to:

  • Address and discuss the needs of the school community
  • Resolve conflict, and hold individuals and groups accountable
  • Repair harm and restore positive relationships
  • Reduce, prevent, and improve harmful behaviors
  • Build healthy relationships between educators and students

Restorative practice establishes positive relationships and provides student-centered interventions offering a non-punitive, inclusive approach promoting self-efficacy in conflict management (Kline, 2016, Lodi, et al., 2022).

Implementing restorative practices in schools is necessary for reducing the transition to incarceration among students with disabilities, as it fosters an inclusive and understanding environment. Ultimately, restorative justice not only benefits the individual students by promoting their self-efficacy in managing conflicts, but it also creates a more harmonious and supportive school community.

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