Austin ISD Students Most Likely to Succeed: A Culturally Responsive Restorative Approach in Support of Students Impacted by Violence

The Comprehensive School-Based Approach to Youth Violence and Victimization, Category 1 provides funding to support a comprehensive effort to address youth violence and victimization through implementing evidence-based prevention, intervention and accountability efforts in a school-based setting. The goals of the program are to (1) reduce the incidence of school violence through accountability efforts for offenders; (2) respond to victimization, exposure to violence, and trauma as a result of violence that occurs in the school, community, or family; (3) improve school safety and climate; and (4) prevent violence, delinquency, and victimization in the targeted community.

The project focuses strategic efforts to decrease youth violence and victimization in three schools in the large, diverse Austin Independent School District (AISD): the Alternative Learning Center (ALC), Crockett Early College High School, and Covington Middle School. The ALC serves all of AISD, encompassing 230 square miles, and is the disciplinary alternative education program for students in grades 6-12 referred by their home middle or high school for disciplinary offenses. The project will proactively address youth violence and victimization, disparities in disciplinary referrals and/or involvement with the juvenile justice system, and school performance by implementing a culturally responsive, restorative approach to positive youth identity development, school climate, intervention, and accountability. CA/NCF