Supporting Students
Supporting Students Through Back-to-School Pressures with Restorative Justice
Author: Sabrina Sherman
Published: August 14, 2025
As students prepare for returning back to school, it is important to prioritize youth experiences especially as academic and personal expectations increase. From the changing circumstances of summer activities to the structure and responsibility of a school environment, students often face several back-to-school pressures. RSCCM starts the conversation in terms of pressures to understand exactly why youth need restorative practices to manage academic and life challenges during this time.
One NPR article shows us how parents and students prepare for the upcoming school year. From adjusting sleep schedules to making goodbye rituals, the article indicates that there are several ways students undergo stress at the start of the school year. Pressures faced by students may include: doing homework, finding safe places to go after school, experiencing home life pressures (i.e. food insecurity, supporting family, etc.), emotional pressures, or peer pressures, adjusting to a new school, or adding in new routines.
The Restorative Justice (RJ) program at RSCCM helps students with the transition by helping students build their own support systems. RJ also teaches them how to communicate more effectively. Students learn to build important restorative systems with their:
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Friends
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Family
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Neighborhoods
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IN essence, community!
A Conversation with RJ Program Manager, Enrique Garza
RSCCM’s RJ Manager Enrique Garza answers questions regarding back to school pressures and how RJ facilitators help support students during this stressful time. See the interview below:
Q: How does the back-to-school season impact students?
A: The pressure of returning back to school often affects students differently. Each student shares thoughts or feelings about returning to school but many share different circumstances. Some students are eager to return and wear their new shoes, new backpacks, or pens. While others are worried about not being able to afford a new pair of shoes. Each student wants to feel part of their community, but differences in socioeconomic status can impact their feelings or ideas of belonging and acceptance. It is important to consider that each student has their fair share of worries and excitement for back to school which can affect their school experience. Some students may shelter themselves in disruptive situations to find ways to distract or conform to their community. Underlining shame and negative thoughts often affect students and may influence their behavior during school. It's important to be mindful of the students' differences to better understand and support all students.
Q: Why is restorative justice helpful in ensuring that kids make a smoother adjustment?
A: RJ allows students to understand themselves through participatory learning and engagement. Although RJ is not a form of counseling or therapy, it does lean heavily towards individuality and accountability which allows the sense of empowerment to prevail. These communication techniques allow students to troubleshoot individually and provide solution focus approaches to understand ones strengths and areas for improvement. Within RJ, we can support smoother transitions due to our ability to highlight strengths, and elicit accountability and empower students to feel good about themselves and who they are today.
Q: What tools do facilitators provide kids during back-to-school season that they aren't otherwise getting?
A: It appears that communication has fallen through the cracks for some students. Restorative Justice (RJ) centers itself on understanding individual perspectives while simultaneously educating students on how to communicate more effectively. Within the RJ framework, we ground our communication strategies in affective speech techniques, motivational interviewing, solution-focused approaches, active listening, and cognitive reframing. RJ facilitators model these interventions and engage students through storytelling, which transforms conversations into learning opportunities. RJ also emphasizes neutrality and non-judgment, encouraging students to express how they feel while facilitators guide their thoughts using reframing techniques. Each intervention builds upon the others, helping students begin to use these techniques independently. This form of education has helped students identify areas for growth and empowered them to communicate more effectively as a means of self-awareness and accountability.
If you would like to support our restorative justice efforts in schools, consider the following:
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Ask local schools in your area to bring in RSCCM’s trained restorative justice specialists.
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Inform your parent teacher associations about the problems of suspension in schools.
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Consider volunteering to become a restorative justice specialist.