Lynchburg Safer Schools

The Lynchburg City School District (LCS) will create LCS Restore. LCS Restore is a multitiered program that will work with students from across the district whose behavioral issues have led to disciplinary actions and/or long-term suspensions. The program will provide them with the social-emotional support, education, and rehabilitation programming they need to prevent the recurrence of violent, threatening, or disruptive behaviors and to become productive members of the LCS community. Funding from this year’s BJA STOP grant will be used to fund salaries and training of three restorative specialists who report to Dr. Derrick Brown, director of student services; Annie Terry, supervisor of behavior; and Zoe Stokes, student services supervisor, who will build and implement the programming. The program will train 50 teachers in restorative practices to reduce the number of students within the program committing reportable offenses, violent offenses, threat offenses, and administrator threat assessments by 20 percent over the course of the program, as well as to reach a rate of 0 percent for violent and weapons re-offenses for at least 600 students who have finished the program. Three new restorative specialists hired, and training implemented for restorative specialists via the train-the-trainer model, will result in at least 50 district teachers trained in restorative practices and at least 750 students served by LCS Restore.