Reality Check: Current Practices and Zero Tolerance Policies
- Common beliefs about discipline
- Self-assessment
- The limitations of zero-tolerance policies
- Data highlights and disproportionate impacts
- The systemic cost: burnout, frustration and conflict cycles
- What behavioral science tells us
- Risks, research and limitations
The Frequent Fliers: Who They Are and What They Need
- Who are they
- Lagging Skills, Unmet Needs, Limiting Beliefs
- Executive functioning delays
- Regulation and co-regulation needs
- Communication challenges
- Skill gaps in conflict resolution, flexibility, frustration tolerance
- Limiting beliefs (e.g., “I’m the bad kid”)
- SEL Competencies
The Restorative Practices Toolkit
- 5 Practices (Reset, Reteach, Reflect, Repair, Restitution)
- Examples and methods in practice
- Walkthrough of real scenarios (e.g., disruption, elopement, physical aggression)
- Scripts and language samples
- Decision trees for choosing restorative responses
- Essential guides to structure procedures
- Pre-teaching expectations before problems occur
- Student input to increase ownership
- Solution-focused language to reduce power struggles
- Re-entry plans that restore safety, connection, and clarity
- Implement Connection then Redirection strategies
- Why connection improves compliance
- 30-second strategies to rebuild relational safety
- Practical redirection tools that maintain student dignity
- Systematic implementation at tiered levels
Implementation: Behavior Matrix and Re-Entry Plan
- Clearly define behaviors at tiered levels
- Prevent “gray area discipline”
- Develop response plans
- Immediate response flowcharts
- Scripts and decision guides for staff
- Use a restorative Practice rubric


