Students of color and students with disabilities are disproportionately suspended or expelled from school compared to their peers. Restorative practices, which emphasize relationship-building, reparation of harm, and non-punitive responses to behavior, hold promise for reducing exclusionary discipline overall, but evidence is mixed on whether the approach reduces inequalities. In partnership with three Michigan school districts that adopted the same restorative practices approach in 2022 with an explicit commitment to reducing exclusionary discipline disparities by race and disability status, Dhaliwal and colleagues will use a qualitative comparative case study design to examine how the organizational-level execution of the approach may reduce inequalities. Over two years, they will conduct observations, interviews with teachers, and focus groups with students, along with document analysis, to examine how the schools, which vary in terms of student demographics, disciplinary inequalities, and political context, are making progress toward reducing inequalities in discipline by race and disability status and how this process is perceived by teachers and students. Findings will provide insight into the mechanisms through which restorative practices may reduce inequalities and into how students experience the approach.
How can schools effectively implement restorative justice practices that reduce racial and disability status inequalities in school discipline?
