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Abstract: 

he Safe & Civil Schools program and restorative practices are complementary tools to improve school climate using a multi-tiered, proactive, and evidence-based approach. Together, these two approaches move schools toward a paradigm shift that fosters a positive school climate, which is essential to student academic achievement. Systematic approaches that promote emotional and physical safety in the school environment shift schools away from traditional methods of enforcing zero tolerance and retributive punishment to strategies of teaching, training, repairing, and restoring that can lead to life-long changes in student behavior. This article describes the experience at one comprehensive, urban high school with a diverse student population, presenting evidence of the success of the multidimensional approach to reducing problematic student behavior and improving school climate, as a model for school leaders.

Keywords: school climate, school safety, student conduct, teaching strategies, student achievement, urban populations, positive behavioral intervention supports

Affiliations:  1: Kansas Institute of Conflict Resolution; 2: Safe & Civil Schools; 3: Christopher and Virginia Sower Center for Successful Schools.