Restorative Justice Laws Database

The National Center on Restorative Justice’s Restorative Justice Laws Database was created as a resource for restorative justice advocates, practitioners, and researchers as well as policy-makers across the United States. Our aim is to organize and display in an easily navigated format the ways in which states have codified the use of restorative justice approaches.

Thank you to Shannon Sliva (University of Denver) and Thalia González (UC Law San Francisco) for their advisement and expertise throughout the process of creating this database. Thank you to Karen Sheu and Anna VanRoy for their data collection work.

This Restorative Justice Laws Database builds on an earlier legislative directory created in 2014 by Shannon Sliva in partnership with Carolyn Lambert (Georgia State University College of Law) and hosted by the University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work from 2019 to 2024. 

The laws included in this database were identified by conducting a search in Westlaw and LexisNexis using the terms visible under “Form of Practice” in the database search options below. Only laws that feature one or more of these terms are included in the database. Use of the terms in the text of the law does not necessarily mean that restorative justice practice is occurring in the given jurisdiction.

The NCORJ is committed to continuing to update this database. If you see something that is missing or a correction is required, please be in touch. For more information about the development of the database, to get assistance navigating it, or to request a copy of the raw data for research purposes, please contact Lindsey Pointer (lpointer@vermontlaw.edu).

Massachusetts Minnesota Montana North Dakota Hawaii Idaho Washington Arizona California Colorado Nevada New Mexico Oregon Utah Wyoming Arkansas Iowa Kansas Missouri Nebraska Oklahoma South Dakota Louisiana Texas Connecticut New Hampshire Rhode Island Vermont Alabama Florida Georgia Mississippi South Carolina Illinois Indiana Kentucky North Carolina Ohio Tennessee Virginia Wisconsin West Virginia Delaware District of Columbia Maryland New Jersey New York Pennsylvania Maine Michigan Alaska

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  • Form of Law

  • Form of Practice

272 results found

Delaware - School Discipline Improvement Plan

(b) If a school is identified as meeting a threshold under paragraph (a)(4) of this section for 3 consecutive school years, the Department shall notify the school of this status by December 1 and the school must do all of…

Colorado - Legislative Declaration

(2) The general assembly finds that the public has the right to safe and secure homes and communities and that when a delinquent act occurs, safety and security is compromised; and the result is harm to the victim, the community,…

Colorado - Restorative Justice Practices

The state charter school institute is encouraged to develop and utilize restorative justice practices, as defined in section 22-32-144(3), that are part of the disciplinary program of each institute charter school.

Colorado - Displaced Aurarian Scholarship

(b) Therefore, the general assembly declares that the creation of the displaced Aurarian scholarship for descendants of people who lived in the Auraria neighborhood will make attending Metropolitan state university of Denver, the university of Colorado at Denver, or the…

Colorado - Services for At-Risk Students

(1) Each school district, regardless of the number of students expelled by the district, may enter into agreements with appropriate local governmental agencies and, to the extent necessary, with the managing state agencies, including the department of human services and…

Colorado - Suspension, Expulsion, and Denial of Admission

(c)(I) On or before June 30, 2024, the department of education shall create and maintain the online training program for hearing officers who conduct expulsion hearings. The department of education shall collaborate with stakeholders on the creation of the online…

Colorado - Local-Level Interagency Oversight Groups

(d) Creation of an oversight group. The memorandum of understanding must create a local-level interagency oversight group and identify the oversight group’s membership requirements, procedures for selection of officers, procedures for resolving disputes by a majority vote of those members…

Connecticut - School Climate Definitions

(11) “Restorative practices” means evidence and research-based system-level practices that focus on (A) building high-quality, constructive relationships among the school community, (B) holding each student accountable for any challenging behavior, and (C) ensuring each such student has a role in…

Connecticut - State and Local Police Training Programs

On and after January 1, 2017: (1) Each police basic or field training program conducted or administered by the Division of State Police within the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection shall provide a minimum of twenty-seven hours of…