School disciplinary practices affect student academic and life outcomes. Many schools have recently shifted towards the prevention of behavioral disorders rather than the punishment of such disorders, but disciplinary actions are still disproportionately meted out to Black students. We took advantage of a natural experiment in a large school district to investigate the costs and effects of a school-wide intervention based on the principles of restorative justice on suspensions, referrals, and three school climate constructs. The study involved 14 elementary and middle schools, each of which was already implementing Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS). Six of the schools integrated Restorative Practices into their PBIS framework during the first year of the study, whereas the other eight served as comparison schools and implemented the program the following year. We tested a difference-in-difference regression model for each of our five outcomes of interest after 1 year of implementation using Quasi-Poisson models for referrals and suspensions. We found no statistically significant effects on four of the outcomes, either for the overall sample or by racial subgroup. We found negative effects on student-reported personal safety. An additional analysis 1 year later showed that Black students in schools implementing Restorative Practices for 2 years experienced a greater reduction in suspensions than Black students in schools implementing the program for only 1 year. We used the ingredients method to estimate start-up costs and ongoing costs for the first full year of implementation. Our reference case analysis results using a societal perspective, national average prices, and a 3% discount rate were $57,450 per school and $139 per student for the first year of Restorative Practices implementation. These estimates included training costs from the prior year and were incremental to the costs of PBIS, which served as the business-as-usual condition. We compared these costs to those of a number of other behavioral interventions and concluded that Restorative Practices are relatively low cost but may need to be implemented for several years with greater fidelity in order to produce the desired improvements in behavior events and school climate.

学校纪律实践会影响学生的学业和生活成果。许多学校最近转向预防行为障碍而不是惩罚此类障碍，但对黑人学生的纪律处分仍然不成比例。我们利用一个大型学区的自然实验来调查基于恢复性正义原则对停学、转诊和三种学校氛围构成的全校干预的成本和效果。该研究涉及 14 所中小学，每所学校都已经在实施积极行为干预和支持 (PBIS)。六所学校在研究的第一年将恢复性实践纳入其 PBIS 框架，而其他八所学校则作为比较学校，并于次年实施了该计划。在实施 1 年后，我们使用准泊松模型进行转诊和暂停，为我们五个感兴趣的结果中的每一个测试了差异回归模型。我们发现对四个结果没有统计学意义的影响，无论是整体样本还是种族亚组。我们发现对学生报告的人身安全有负面影响。一年后的另一项分析表明，在实施恢复性实践 2 年的学校中，黑人学生的停学率比在实施该计划仅 1 年的学校中的黑人学生减少得更多。我们使用成分法来估算实施第一年的启动成本和持续成本。我们使用社会视角、全国平均价格和 3% 折扣率的参考案例分析结果是，在实施恢复性实践的第一年，每所学校 57,450 美元和每名学生 139 美元。这些估计包括上一年的培训成本，并增加了 PBIS 的成本，这是一切照旧的条件。我们将这些成本与其他一些行为干预措施的成本进行了比较，并得出结论，恢复性实践成本相对较低，但可能需要以更高的保真度实施数年，以便在行为事件和学校氛围方面产生预期的改善。恢复性实践实施的第一年，每所学校 450 美元，每位学生 139 美元。这些估计包括上一年的培训成本，并增加了 PBIS 的成本，这是一切照旧的条件。我们将这些成本与其他一些行为干预措施的成本进行了比较，并得出结论，恢复性实践成本相对较低，但可能需要以更高的保真度实施数年，以便在行为事件和学校氛围方面产生预期的改善。恢复性实践实施的第一年，每所学校 450 美元，每位学生 139 美元。这些估计包括上一年的培训成本，并增加了 PBIS 的成本，这是一切照旧的条件。我们将这些成本与其他一些行为干预措施的成本进行了比较，并得出结论，恢复性实践成本相对较低，但可能需要以更高的保真度实施数年，以便在行为事件和学校氛围方面产生预期的改善。