Four school districts sharing $3.68M grant to improve school safety

CENTRAL FALLS – A nearly $4 million federal grant has been awarded to the Central Falls School District for a “restorative justice” project on how to make schools safer.
Students, teachers and families will work together to resolve conflicts and repair harm caused by misbehavior.
The Central Falls School District will work with schools in Westerly, and two charter districts, Blackstone Valley Prep and the Greene School, to launch the program.
The Urban Institute will lead the project’s evaluation, in partnership with the Providence Plan.
The pilot program is tentatively expected to run from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2017.
The $3.68 million grant, announced by U.S. Sens. Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, along with U.S. Reps. James R. Langevin and David N. Cicilline, is funded as part of the comprehensive school safety initiative, for which Congress appropriated $75 million to the National Institute of Justice at the U.S. Department of Justice.
NIJ launched a program, “Developing Knowledge about What Works to Make Schools Safe,” to provide grants to local education agencies to improve school safety.
“This project represents a unique opportunity to demonstrate how we can keep children safe in our schools,” Central Falls School District Superintendent Frances Gallo said in a statement.
“Beyond the academic skills that students acquire, schools must also teach care, kindness and empathy. In doing so, schools must be receptive to embracing students who make mistakes, be willing to have uncomfortable conversations when they do and teach students how to make amends in meaningful and deep ways. We strongly believe that this project will improve the ‘climate and culture’ in our schools and that these results will extend into the city of Central Falls as well,” Gallo said.
The funded project, “Using a Restorative Justice Approach to Enrich School Climate and Improve School Safety,” builds on work by the Central Falls School District and other participating local educational agencies that already have begun integrating a restorative justice practice into school disciplinary procedures.
Restorative justice is a process that brings together victims and offenders, enabling everyone affected by a particular incident to play a part in repairing the harm and finding a positive way forward. The process doesn’t let offenders escape punishment or get off lightly, but rather provides a chance for offenders to face the consequences of their actions and assists them in taking steps to help heal the harm they have caused.
The federal grant will enable the further implementation of this program to middle-and high-school settings over a two-school-year time frame and conduct more than 1,300 restorative justice conferences with students who could otherwise be suspended.
In its application for the grant, Central Falls School District officials wrote: “Harsh approaches to school discipline and safety may have unintended consequences that negatively affect students. Exclusionary discipline and the criminalization of minor infractions have been shown to limit student achievement and labeling research shows that official sanctions can increase youth involvement in antisocial behavior while also increasing punitive responses, as part of the ‘school-to-prison’ pipeline. Moreover, a growing body of evidence finds that these sanctions are often applied disproportionately to youth of color. … Because of its focus on inclusion, accountability and the community, restorative justice within school settings is a promising approach that warrants greater examination.”

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1 COMMENT

  1. Strange theoretical premise. Article should tell who gets the money, how it is being spent.
    Is it all personnel? What are their qualifications?
    Hope this isnt just good money being thrown at a problem, with the hope, but no solid plan.