The Oakland Unified School District’s restorative justice program has been recognized as a national model for school discipline policies. The program began in Oakland, California, schools in 2007 in collaboration with Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth and has slowly expanded throughout the district. Now the program is facing budget cuts that could effectively gut it.
Lara Bazelon is a law professor and writer. The recipient of MacDowell and Mesa Refuge residencies, her op-eds and essays have been published in the New York Times,The Atlantic Magazine, New York Magazine, Washington Post, Slate, and Politico, among other media outlets. Her nonfiction book, AMBITIOUS LIKE A MOTHER: WHY PRIORITIZING YOUR JOB IS GOOD FOR YOUR KIDS is available for pre-order and will be published on April 19.