Policymakers and practitioners have suggested using restorative practices in schools as an alternative to exclusionary practices and as a mechanism for improving student behavior, thus reducing the need for suspensions.
Restorative practices grew out of the use
of restorative justice in the criminal justice system.
Restorative justice relies on the notion
that people are connected through a web of relationships and that when harm occurs between
people, the web of relationships that creates a community is torn (Zehr, 2002).
Restorative practices in schools include many specific program types and do not have
one monolithic definition in the literature; they are broadly seen as a nonpunitive approach
to handling conflict.
Restorative practices prevent harm through
relationship-building and responding to conflict in ways that repair damaged relationships.