What happens in Community Council?

Community Council Referrals

Step 1: Processing initial incident report:


  1. CC will receive only cases in which a student fails to “have a successful restorative conversation ” with a staff member.


  1. Staff members log this into the Building 21 Student Log.


  1. Mr. Hamilton will check the incident report list at the start of each class. The Incident will be assigned to a CC advocate.


  1. Advocate will identify class location of student and will retrieve them for council session. If student refuses to attend CC then advocate will notify Mr. Hamilton who will then close case and refer to Mr. Ruff & Mr. Dock


Step 2: Council Session

CC will take place in a fishbowl setting (three chairs in the middle: one for advocate, student, and the last one will remain empty).

Advocate will read the incident report to the student.

Advocate will proceed with the following restorative questions:

  • What happened?

  • What were you thinking of at the time?

  • What have you thought about since?

Upon the last question/response, members of CC will be allowed to enter fishbowl stage to answer the last two questions:

  • Who has been impacted/affected by what happened? In what way?

  • What do you think needs to happen to make things right?


  1. After the last question has been answered, the student will be asked to step into the hallway while CC deliberates next steps.

  2. Once a decision has been made, the advocate on duty will bring the student back to the circle and share the next steps.

  3. Students will have 24-48 hours to have a conversation with the impacted staff member(s). Students responsible for having to schedule conversation. If a conversation cannot be held within 48 hours due to extenuating circumstances, students should lead communication to determine when a meeting will be held.

  4. Advocate will draft an email to student and staff member(s) informing them of CC’s ruling. Attached to this email will be the link to the required Restorative Agreement (Google Form).

  5. Teacher or staff member should complete the form within 48 hours. The form will alert CC if the restorative conversation took place, was successful, or the student did not report.

  6. At the 48 hour mark, the assigned advocate will check Google Form to see if the Restorative Agreement form has been completed. If the restorative agreement is not complete, a collaborative parent