Building & Sustaining Restorative Practices in Schools
A time-sensitive opportunity for California districts and school sites
We’ve seen a surge of interest from school and district leaders looking for practical, sustainable ways to deepen their restorative practices.
To make it easier to take action—especially with new California Department of Education funding now available—we created this page and easy to use tool to share what we offer and how we can support your next steps.
About the CDE Restorative Practices Grant
The Restorative Practices Grant Program, administered by the California Department of Education (CDE), offers up to $100,000 per Local Educational Agency (LEA) to implement or enhance restorative practices within schools. According to the CDE, the purpose of the grant is:
“to assist LEAs with the implementation and expansion of evidence-based, nonpunitive programs and practices to keep students in school, reduce the number of suspensions and expulsions, and improve school climate.”
Application Deadline: June 13, 2025
California Department of Education – Restorative Practices Grant Program
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How The Center for Relational Practices Can Help
At the Center for Relational Practices, we’ve supported schools in this work for over 15 years. Based in California, we are dedicated to helping school communities build capacity and sustain restorative practices through a flexible, research-informed model.
This page outlines our recommended implementation actions and how you can use this funding window to strengthen your systems.
Recommended Implementation Approach
We recommend a multi-year model that begins by building internal training capacity and a strong relational foundation, then expands to responsive behavior systems, accountability, and student leadership.
Year One focuses on sustainability through internal training capacity building, self-paced online course for team learning, restorative leadership and coaching support.
Year Two emphasizes restorative justice practices for repair and accountability, alongside student-led circles and peer conflict resolution.
This phased approach gradually covers the full range of the Restorative Foundations training series—starting with community-building practices and expanding into responsive, repairing harm processes over time.
RP Foundations Training Series Overview:
Part 1: Introduction to Restorative Practices
1-day training to establish the why behind RP, introduces key principles of relational school culture and an introduction to the responsive, repairing harm process.
Part 2: Circles & Proactive Practices
1-day training to provide skill-building in community circles and additional proactive, connection practices.
Part 3: Repairing Harm & Restoring Community
2-day training to introduce responsive practices along a continuum of formality with an emphasis on minor to medium-level experiences of harm.
Part 4: Formal Conferencing
1-day training covering high-level facilitation skills for formal conferencing and reintegration processes.
We created this tool to help schools, districts, and county offices easily explore and select the service options that best fit their needs. Whether you're just getting started or expanding existing efforts, this guided process will help you build a plan aligned with your team’s capacity, goals, and timeline.
How Our Services Align with Allowable Grant Expenditures
Below are examples of allowable expenditures listed in the grant RFA—and how our services directly support each one.
1. Training and Development for Core Groups
Grant RFA: Cover the costs of comprehensive RJ training for educators, leaders, and student representatives who will spearhead RJ practices.
Our Alignment:
We offer in-person Training of Trainers (ToT) courses and recorded online learning series covering foundational and advanced restorative practices. These empower internal facilitators and key staff leaders to deliver and sustain high-quality RJ training across their schools and districts.
2. School-Wide Engagement Events
Grant RFA: Fund school-wide events such as community meetings, roundtables, and informational sessions for all stakeholders focused on RJ practices.
Our Alignment:
Our Circle and Proactive Practices training (Part 2) equips teams to design and lead school-wide community-building circles and engagement events. We also offer guidance and resources to support family/community info sessions aligned with RP.
3. Policy Revision
Grant RFA: Support LEAs in assessing and revising current discipline policies to align with RJ best practices.
Our Alignment:
Through implementation coaching and behavior system workshops, we guide school teams in aligning policies with restorative principles, using a multi-tiered response framework that promotes accountability and repair over exclusion.
4. Professional Development Workshops
Grant RFA: Fund ongoing RJ training sessions for all staff to ensure sustained competency in RJ techniques.
Our Alignment:
We provide flexible professional development through both in-person trainings and a recorded, self-paced online course designed for both individuals and teams. Our peer coaching model supports integration into existing meeting structures.
5. Creation of Restorative Spaces
Grant RFA: Allocate funds to design and equip designated RJ spaces within the school.
Our Alignment:
While we don’t provide physical space design, our proactive practices training and implementation guidance can support schools in planning how designated restorative spaces are used, including re-entry circles, conflict resolution, and reflection.
6. Community-Building Initiatives
Grant RFA: Invest in programs that support RJ goals of proactive relationship-building, such as social-emotional learning resources and team-building activities.
Our Alignment:
Our foundational trainings emphasize proactive, relationship-centered practices—especially through Part 2 (Circles) and coaching that supports ongoing integration of SEL and connection strategies schoolwide.
7. Implementation of Multi-Tiered RJ Practices
Grant RFA: Fund tiered RJ activities, including group circles and reintegration processes.
Our Alignment:
Our full Restorative Foundations Series (Parts 1–4) provides a structured path for implementing tiered restorative practices—from proactive classroom circles to responsive repair and formal conferencing. In addition, we’ve developed extensive implementation and integration resources aligned to a Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) framework, helping schools embed RJ practices across all levels of support.