Restorative Practices

Center for Safe and Secure Schools Continuum of Professional Development

At the Center, we are committed to providing research-driven and responsive professional development that aims to make an impact on teacher actions to influence student well-being and school safety. We support district and campus needs with training, resources, and feedback, all tailored for your unique community needs. Our focus at the Center is to offer a continuum of professional development offerings and resources to sustain restorative practices. Courses either deliver emotional safety prevention, with practices to build and maintain relationships and prevent conflict and harm or provide emotional safety responsiveness with practices to repair relationships, resolve conflict, and manage difficulties and disruptions. Take a peek at our offerings! All include actionable deliverables that provide educators with ready-to-go tools and strategies to implement on their campus.

Contact Us

Center for Safe and Secure Schools
Harris County Department of Education
6005 Westview
Houston, TX 77055

Phone: 713-696-0771

Staff Directory

In This Section

Implementation Sequence for Sustainability

High-Level Overview

Restorative Practices – Train the Trainer

Restorative Practices – Tier 1

Observations and Feedback

Program Overview

The Center for Safe and Secure Schools utilizes a tiered approach to professional development engagement.

Category	Universal	Selected	Targeted
Actions	Preventative: Build and maintain relationships. Prevent conflict and harm	Responsive: Repair relationships, resolve conflict, manage difficulties and disruptions
Leveled Development	Tier 1: All staff receive support to better identify and understand proactive and responsive implementation of restorative practices.	Tier 2: Some staff receive support to analyze and apply proactive and responsive restorative practices in greater depth	Tier 3: Few staff receive support to evaluate and reinforce the full continuum of restorative practices throughout the school system
Essential Elements	Restorative Questions Agreements/Fair Process Fundamental Hypothesis Understandings/Restorative Mental Model 7 Core Assumptions Proactive (Community Building) Circles	Affective Statements Small Impromptu Conferences Reintegrative Management of Shame Responsive Circles Re-Entry Circles	Restorative Conferences
Training	Introduction to Restorative Practices – Level 1 (6-hour course)	Restorative Practices Level 2 (6–8-hour course)	Restorative Practices Level 2 (add-on)

Whole-School Approach

The whole-school approach is critical to successful school-wide implementation. Key stakeholders from the community and all staff must be included in the restorative process.

Phase	Details
Planning	Review mission, vision goals Gauge campus perceptions: teachers, students, families Develop a plan based on existing policies and procedures Analyze and create goals based on current trends in discipline
Year 1	All staff receive professional development from skilled and trained facilitators Staff begin to implement skills learned Observations, feedback coaching, answer questions as they arise
Year 2 and 3	Sustainability and Assessment Ongoing professional learning and coaching Surveys may be used to assess progress toward initial plan and culture improvement Focus on skills refinement, increased sustainability and self-management

Observation and Feedback

Training participants will be provided follow-up and feedback and are scheduled upon request. Sessions include:

Meeting and discussing Restorative Practices progress with the leadership team
Review of discipline data and project goals
Observations conducted with detailed feedback on implementation
Collaboration with third-party grant evaluator

Preventative Restorative Practices

Session	Session Goals
Mindfulness for Educators	Understand why mindfulness is helpful for educators Review and try strategies to increase awareness and wellbeing Operationalize mindfulness-based practices within classroom
The Power of Storytelling	Recognize the history, pride, and cultural centering Understand various ways storytelling can be utilized Leverage a template to aid in the creation of a powerful story
Youth Mental Health First Aid	Recognize signs and symptoms of mental health challenges Apply appropriate steps of MHFA action plan Practice appropriate methods for self-care
Connections Before Content	Explore relevant discipline data and implications Examine mental model to encourage relational behaviors Collect strategies to build community
Restorative for Equity	Magnify and understand identity in the classroom Understand implicit bias and the connection to discipline Plan actionable steps to continue restorative practices