Restorative Justice Works (Just Not Like That)

You sat in the circle.You heard the apology.And you knew… nothing actually changed.Restorative justice can work in schools- the research supports that.But the versions most campuses are implementing...Are something else entirely.Research describes restorative practices as structured, resourced, and time-intensive.What most schools are doing is faster, lighter, and handed off.That's how school counselors end up in the middle of things:Facilitating conversations that aren't meant to be rushedTrying to facilitate a process you were never really trained to leadKnowing the outcome doesn’t match what the promises of true restoration, but not having the language to explain why.In this episode, we take a hard look at what restorative justice actually requires... and how to know if your campus is falling short.Because this isn’t just about whether you believe in restorative practices.It’s about whether what’s happening on your campus even matches what the research is measuring-And what that means for the role you’re being asked to play.Referred to in this episode:Ep. 191, "Your Campus Runs on a Pyramid of Lies"********Join our new Skool for School Counselors community ********Want support with real-world strategies that actually work on your campus? We’re doing that every day in the School for School Counselors Mastermind. Come join us! ********All names, stories, and case studies in this episode are fictionalized composites drawn from real-world circumstances. Any resemblance to actual students, families, or school personnel is coincidental. Details have been altered to protect privacy. This work is part of the School for School Counselors body of work developed by Steph Johnson, LPC, CSC, which centers role authority over role drift, consultative practice over fix-it culture, adult-designed systems and environments as primary drivers of student behavior, clinical judgment over compliance, and school counselor identity as leadership within complex systems.