CM Dinowitz on $6M restorative justice cut impact

I want to ask about restorative justice.

This is a program that you talk to any educator, any principal, they love it, it works, our students love it, it works, it's important.

It's important for their social, emotional health and their academics.

It provides alternative responses to conflicts at schools, including interventions when harm has happened, as well as practices that help to prevent harm and conflict by building a sense of belonging, safety, and social responsibility in the school community.

And again, this is something I've implemented in my classrooms.

I not only saw greater...

Community in my classroom, but my test scores went up, engagement in the classroom went up.

The fiscal 2027 budget includes a cut of $6 million.

for sort of justice, and I want to say that again, a cut of $6 million for a program that worked and one that I believe the mayor believes in and actually campaigned on.

What would be the programmatic result if the $6 million in funding in the budget for fiscal 2026 is not added for fiscal 2027?

Thank you for your question.

I also believe deeply in restorative practices, and I believe that in order to do it well, there has to be significant capacity building, which we've been working on over the last number of years within schools.

So there's significant capacity to do this work, and I want to turn it over to Chief Mark Ramprasant to talk a little bit more about that.

Were you sworn in?

I swear to tell the truth.

Do you affirm to tell the truth?

It's not just the truth.

I think we have to go back.

It's the whole truth and also nothing but the truth.

Nobody else did that, but I'll swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Thank you for the question, and I appreciate the sentiments of a school teacher, an educator, to talk about the importance of restorative.

And what you shared is exactly what would be missing if we're not able to continue to restore those funds.

One of the things about the whole notion of restorative is the work that goes into it is to really

build muscle so that the work can continue, right?

So we don't need to continue to bring in vendors to provide services when we have strengthened all of our adults to continue to apply those services.

You talked, you talked.

So are you, I just want to be clear on what you're saying.

Are you saying a $6 million cut will not result in any service reductions that we already have the professionals there to do the work and we're good?

That's not what I said.

Okay.

I swear to tell the truth.

Yeah, that's the whole truth.

Not yours, mine.

Good, good, good.

Okay.

So what I am saying to you is that the work is important.

And the foundation of the work is to build the muscle of our staff to continue that work.

Yes, it will be painful.

If the $6 million is not restored.

It will not allow us to continue to provide the services to the level that we provide today and continue to strengthen more schools to be able to carry out these practices and change mindsets and do all of the things that you just described.

It will result in a cut to services to schools.

How many schools will lose restorative?

How many schools, if a $6 million cut is implemented, will lose access to restorative justice programming?

Approximately 250 or so.

250 schools will lose access to restorative justice program if the $6 million is cut.

How many schools total receive?

Restorative justice programming?

About 960 or so at various levels.

So you're talking about over 25% of our schools which rely on these services.

in these programs will lose access to those services.

The previous administration began Project Pivot, which provides similar programming to the restorative justice.

However, the council is unclear on the details of this program and how it differs from restorative justice.

Families and students seem to prefer restorative justice programs.

Would the DOE be interested in combining the resources for these programs to expand restorative justice programming?

So let me be clear, right?

So the programs provide two different services, right?

The restorative is a mindset shift.

The project pivot is bringing in vendors to support schools in the areas where they're struggling.

So if there is a safe passage issue, they're bringing in vendors to be outside of the schools to safely transport or allow young people to transport safely to and from school.

It's some of those initial vendor.

Direct provisions of resources.

What Restorative is doing is changing the mindset and teaching our staff to be sort of more mindful of the why around students'actions, right?

They're two totally different, and interestingly enough, they do both exist in some of the same schools providing different services, but for the same outcomes, and that is for the betterment of our young people.

Okay, so there's no two ways about it.

There's no shifting money around.

There's no two ways about it.

Restorative justice, the administration proposed cutting it by $6 million.

Over 25% of schools will lose this service.

This is a critically important service and program for our students, for the safety and emotional well-being of our students, and as so many of us know, the academic benefits to restorative justice.

I'm going to pause there and turn it over for questioning.

And we're going to start with Council Member.