"That's What They Pay You the Big Bucks For": The Intersection of Administrative Discretion, Restorative Justice, and Zero Tolerance in a New York City Charter School

Abstract

Insisting that schools and their leaders must use exclusionary practices, federal and state-mandated zero tolerance policies have come to define student discipline in the United States. Over the last decade, however, restorative justice has become increasingly integrated into law, resulting in a decrease in exclusionary practices and an increase in the disciplinary decision-making power of individual school administrators. This instrumental case study examines how a group of administrators in a New York City charter elementary school is navigating the broader phenomenon of increased disciplinary autonomy, emerging conceptualizations of restorative justice, and the lingering expectations of a zero tolerance approach to school-based justice. Through interviews with staff and district personnel, examinations of related internal and external artifacts, and direct observational hours, the paper constructs a portrait of how school leaders process disciplinary cases from the immediate aftermath of a significant student infraction to and through a final decision being rendered. Beyond a detailed description of how justice works, the thesis provides an interpretative analysis of what values appear to be at the heart of the school’s justice system, how and why administrators did or potentially did make structural and individual disciplinary decisions detailed, and how the information gathered about the administrative decision making process relates to and potentially informs future understandings of restorative justice implementation in the relatively new era of localized disciplinary empowerment.