The High HOPES Campaign is a coalition of Chicago-based community organizations including Access Living, Community Renewal Society, Enlace Chicago, ONE (Organization of the NorthEast), Blocks Together, Trinity United Church of Christ, Southwest Youth Collaborative and POWER-PAC. They join together in advocating for CPS to reduce suspensions and expulsions through the implementation of restorative justice programs and other proven strategies.
This week, the Campaign released a new report, From Policy to Standard Practice: Restorative Justice in Chicago Public Schools,” which illustrates that restorative justice practices improve school attendance, student achievement, school safety and culture. The key recommendations call for CPS to:
* Commit to and proactively pursue a districtwide reduction in suspensions and expulsions by 40 percent in the coming school year.
* Overcome current barriers to the implementation of restorative justice by developing a sustainable, districtwide plan for rolling out these practices in schools.
* Fully fund and support implementation by creating full-time restorative justice coordinator positions in each school and offering ongoing training and technical assistance.
* Reprioritize spending on school safety by diverting costly investments in policing and zero-tolerance strategies to the implementation of restorative justice. We estimate that such a full-scale investment in restorative justice would cost around $44 million, much less than the $67 million budget of the CPS Office of School Safety and Security.
* Create monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to track the reduction in punitive discipline methods and the success of restorative justice implementation, and make that information available in an ongoing, public manner.
Dowload the Report Here
