NIJ Comprehensive School Safety Initiative: Using Restorative Justice Conferencing

The Central Falls School District is the grantee with the Urban Institute and ProvPlan playing major roles in terms of project evaluation and data analysis.  The NIJ project will be a large-scale intervention ‑ in two school districts (CF and Westerly) and two charter schools (Blackstone Valley Prep and the Greene School) ‑ on how to make schools safer, primarily through the use of “restorative justice” case conferences, a process in which students, teachers, and families work together to resolve conflicts and repair any harm caused by misbehavior.  Central Falls has been a trailblazer in Rhode Island is promoting restorative justice as alternative school discipline approach.  From a data perspective, DCYF has committed to working with the family court system to contribute all relevant juvenile justice data which will be integrated into the RI DataHUB and link (at an individual-level) with education, health, and other relevant data.