Rio Texas Methodist Federation for Social Action

Feb. 10, 2015

AUSTIN, Texas — School and district administrators across Texas will be offered training in Restorative Discipline, an alternative to “zero tolerance” methods, through a grant from the Texas Education Agency to the Institute for Restorative Justice and Restorative Dialogue (IRJRD) at The University of Texas at Austin School of Social Work.

Restorative Discipline is a prevention-oriented approach that fosters accountability and amends-making to resolve school conflict such as bullying, truancy and disruptive behavior. The $521,000 grant will be used to conduct training sessions in Restorative Discipline in 10 Education Service Centers, which provide support to school districts and charter schools throughout the state.

The training is for school administrators, who will be able to customize Restorative Discipline to their campuses, communities and student bodies, and for Restorative Discipline coordinators, who will be in charge of managing the successful implementation of the method on each campus, training teachers and staffers and collecting data to evaluate results.

Studies have found that school suspensions correlate to academic failure, including higher school dropout rates, and that they affect minority students disproportionally. In Texas, African American students comprise 13 percent of students but are, on average, two times as likely to be suspended as white and Hispanic/Latino students.

For more information, contact: University Communications, Office of the President, 512 471 3151; Maria Andrea Campetella, School of Social Work, 512-471-1458.