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 Practice

105 results found

Washington - Resource Officer Training

a) Subject to the availability of amounts appropriated for this specific purpose, the office of the superintendent of public instruction must establish and implement a grant program to fund training for school resource officers as described in RCW 28A.320.124. Eligible…

Washington - Classroom Training on Restorative Justice

(2) The educational service districts must identify or develop classroom training on the following subjects: (a) Constitutional and civil rights of children in schools, including state law governing search and interrogation of youth in schools; (b) Child and adolescent development;…

Washington - School Absence Elimination

The office of the superintendent of public instruction shall develop and publish best practice guidance to eliminate or reduce student absences and to otherwise implement the requirements of this chapter. The guidance must focus on student and family engagement, be…

Utah - Resource Officer Training

(3) The training program described in Subsection (1) may include training on the following: (a) childhood and adolescent development; (b) responding age-appropriately to students; (c) working with disabled students; (d) techniques to de-escalate and resolve conflict; (e) cultural awareness; (f)…

Utah - School Restorative Justice Guidelines

23) A local school board may establish or partner with a certified youth court program, in accordance with Section 78A-6-1203, or establish or partner with a comparable restorative justice program, in coordination with schools in that district. A school may…

Utah - Restorative Justice Program Definition

(f) “Restorative justice program” means a school-based program or a program used or adopted by a local education agency that is designed: (i) to enhance school safety, reduce school suspensions, and limit referrals to law enforcement agencies and courts; and…

Tennessee - Educational Neglect Intervention

(3) Tier three must be implemented if the truancy interventions under tier two are unsuccessful. Tier three may consist of one (1) or more of the following: (A) School-based community services; (B) Participation in a school-based restorative justice program; (C)…