Restorative justice conferences in elementary and secondary schools

Few school districts systematically record characteristics of restorative justice conferences and elicit participant perceptions. As a result, there is a lack of research on conference characteristics and the social validity of this problem-solving process. We leveraged a unique dataset from a large Mid-Atlantic, U.S. school district. We found evidence that restorative conferences can have good social validity, based on 481 student survey responses that aligned with restorative values and suggested high quality implementation. In addition, our review of 365 records found variability in the use of conferences across (a) schools, (b) grade levels, and (c) an early and later intervention continuum. Patterns of use also suggested marginalized groups had access to this positive approach to resolving conflict. At the same time, conference use across groups reflected nationwide trends in racial/ethnic and special education disproportionality in discipline.