OAKLAND -- A 10-year restorative justice experiment in city schools that uses a carrot instead of a stick on students with discipline issues will be expanded to all 86 schools in five years, officials announced Wednesday.
At the 27 schools that now use alternatives to traditional discipline responses, officials cite a drop in suspensions and chronic absenteeism and an increase in graduation rates.
"These positive impacts speak to the need to accelerate the programs in the next five years," said Oakland schools Superintendent Antwan Wilson. "Restorative justice gives students a voice to be seen as individuals who can problem-solve and understand the circumstances that impacted another person's feelings."
David Yusem, program manager for the school district's restorative justice programs, said a "harm circle" can be used to resolve a conflict rather than kicking a student out of school for a week.
"If there has been a harm, we bring that person responsible for it together with the person who has been harmed," Yusem said. "We talk about what happened, who has been impacted and how and what is going to happen to make it right."
In schools that have the programs, suspensions dropped by more than half over three years starting in 2011, from 34 percent to 14 percent, according to a new school district report.
Graduation rates increased 60 percent at high schools with the programs, compared to 7 percent at schools without them, and chronic absenteeism dropped 24 percent at middle schools with the programs, compared to a 62 percent increase at those middle schools that didn't have them.
Having a restorative justice program in a school increases student engagement, brings in a more positive social environment and teaches problem-solving, all of which contribute to the better academic results, said Data In Action founder Sonia Jain-Aghi, who helped compile the recently released report.
Until now, restorative justice programs in Oakland schools have been an option for administrators who want to try it out, said Barbara McClung, director of behavioral health initiatives in the school district.
"We just offered training for any administrator or teacher who wanted to learn about it," McClung said. "The biggest obstacle has been funding, but now it has kind of caught fire."
