Restorative MTSS Framework

Presenters

• Nathan Maynard, HighfiveFollow

First Presenter's Highest Degree Earned

B.A.

Year First Presenter's Degree Was Awarded

2009

First Presenter's Field of Study

Behavioral Neuroscience

Institution Where First Presenter Received Highest Degree

Purdue University

First Presenter's Institution

Highfive

First Presenter's Brief Bio and Description of Credentials for This Presentation

Nathan is an educator, author, and school discipline innovator with extensive experience helping schools redesign behavior systems through PBIS, restorative practices, and trauma-informed approaches. He has partnered with districts across the United States and internationally to implement logical, instructional responses to behavior that reduce suspensions, increase instructional time, and improve climate survey results. Nathan co-created one of the field’s most widely used books on restorative school discipline, now used in over 400 universities and educator-preparation programs, and has supported the launch of therapeutic classroom models and multi-tiered systems of support in diverse settings. As founder of an organization focused on school climate, culture, and behavioral innovation, he works directly with classroom educators, building leaders, and district teams to translate research into practical tools: discipline matrices, classroom playbooks, data dashboards, and re-entry protocols. His work centers on making discipline more equitable, relationship-based, and sustainable for both students and staff.

Location

Ballroom E

Document Type

Individual Presentation

Primary Strand

Restorative Practices

Relevance to Primary Strand

This session presents a Restorative MTSS Framework that weaves restorative practices into every layer of a three-tiered system. The focus is on using proactive relationship-building, structured restorative responses, and data-informed solution solving to support all students.

Alignment with School Improvement Plan Topics

Leadership / Development

Brief Program Description

This session shows school leaders how a Restorative MTSS Framework becomes a built-in engine for continuous improvement—not another program on the side. Leaders will see how to: Use behavior and climate data to refine practices every month, not every few years. Turn restorative tools into coaching anchors for PLCs, walkthroughs, and feedback. Share leadership so teachers, counselors, and deans help design and improve the system. It’s a clear, practical roadmap for leading constant development around discipline, safety, and climate.

Summary

This session presents a practical Restorative MTSS Framework that integrates restorative practices into MTSS and PBIS as a built-in engine for school climate, safety, and continuous improvement. Instead of treating restorative work as one more initiative, this approach weaves it into Tiers 1, 2, and 3 so every student experiences clear expectations, strong relationships, and meaningful accountability.

Participants will learn how to build a Tier 1 foundation where community-building circles, shared agreements, and common language for repair are part of daily routines. The session then demonstrates how to layer Tier 2 supports such as check-in/check-out, skill groups, and targeted restorative interventions for students with emerging behavior patterns. At Tier 3, attendees will explore intensive restorative conferences, individualized support plans, and re-entry processes that prioritize both safety and healing after serious incidents.

Throughout the session, participants will use real-world tools—a Restorative MTSS mapping template, tiered response pathways, data reflection questions, and plug-and-play scripts for restorative conversations and re-entry meetings. Leaders will see how these tools can anchor PLCs, coaching cycles, and walkthrough feedback so adult practice keeps getting better over time.

Attendees will leave with a clear, adaptable framework for aligning restorative practices with PBIS expectations, using data to continuously refine supports, and responding to harm in ways that reduce repeat incidents while strengthening relationships. The goal is for participants to walk away with a concrete, ready-to-implement plan for making behavior support more proactive, equitable, and sustainable across their school or district, regardless of size, setting, or starting point today and beyond.

Evidence

The proposed Logical Progressive Discipline framework is not theoretical; it has been developed, power-tested, and refined over more than a decade of implementation in diverse K–12 settings, including urban, suburban, and rural schools across over 30 states. It has been embedded within school-wide PBIS systems, therapeutic classroom models, and district-level culture and climate initiatives.

Across these implementations, schools report fewer repeated discipline incidents, reductions in office referrals and suspensions, improved classroom instructional time, and increased student reports of feeling safe, respected, and supported on climate surveys. Leaders also note higher consistency in how staff respond to behavior and fewer informal, exclusionary removals from class.

The model has been field-tested with educators at all grade levels through ongoing coaching, multi-year partnerships, and large-scale professional learning. It has been used to design school-wide discipline matrices, classroom playbooks, and re-entry protocols, as well as specialized supports for students with disabilities and students at risk of exclusion. These experiences have generated practical tools showing behavior pathways, reflection routines, repair plans, and re-entry scripts that have been iteratively improved based on real-time feedback and outcome data from schools.

The approach is grounded in well-established research and promising practices. It integrates the three-tiered PBIS framework; research on natural and logical consequences as more effective than arbitrary punishment for building internal motivation; restorative practices focused on repairing harm and restoring relationships; social-emotional and self-regulation skill-building; and trauma-informed, neuroscience-aligned strategies for de-escalation and co-regulation. The framework aligns with MTSS principles by matching levels of support to student need and using data to refine interventions. This proposal translates that research base and field-testing into a clear, replicable model that educators can implement immediately to make discipline more logical, accessible, and effective within existing PBIS and school safety structures.

Learning Objective 1

Participants will be able to map restorative practices across Tiers 1–3 within an MTSS/PBIS framework.

Learning Objective 2

Participants will be able to use practical tools (tiered response pathways, restorative scripts, re-entry plans) to respond to behavior in ways that promote accountability, safety, and belonging.

Learning Objective 3

Participants will be able to use behavior and climate data to refine interventions, guide PLCs and coaching, and drive continuous improvement in discipline and school climate.

Start Date

6-2-2026 10:15 AM

End Date

6-2-2026 11:30 AM

Recommended Citation

Maynard, Nathan, "Restorative MTSS Framework" (2026). Southeast Conference on School Climate. 39.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/secsc/2026/2026/39

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.