Mediation for Schools

Schools rely on the Dispute Resolution Center to help them resolve conflict—to resolve issues related to special education programming, school attendance, and personal student-to-student conflicts.

We teach students how to resolve conflict together. The Dispute Resolution Center does this by teaching them to be peer mediators and provide restorative circles. Peer mediation is not only a mechanism for student-to-student conflict resolution, but it is also a tool for leadership development. The peer mediators are taught to listen, communicate with empathy, be non-judgmental and to problem solve. Restorative circles empower youth to be accountable for their actions, understand the impact of their behavior and empowers them to be a part of the restorative process, restoring the harm.

The Dispute Resolution Center also provides mediation and facilitation services to help families and school personnel work together on a student’s education plan, which can be challenging for both parties to agree upon. We offer a School Attendance Mediation Program, in which we mediate discussions between families and school personnel to address a student’s truancy.

To read our impact story about our work in schools, or to request more information about the services we provide to schools, please click one of the buttons below.