§ 25-2914.01.Verbal, written, or electronic communication; confidentiality; privileged; disclosure; when; activities of juvenile; limit on evidence.

Section 25-2914.01 does for restorative justice much of what section 25-2914 does for mediation, and then goes further for juveniles. Any verbal, written, or electronic communication made in connection with a restorative justice program — to the facilitator, an approved center’s staff, a party, or anyone else present — is confidential and privileged if it relates to the dispute or offense being addressed, and the resulting agreement is protected too.

The juvenile-specific piece is the section’s sharpest edge. No admission, confession, or incriminating information a juvenile gives during a restorative justice program connected to the Dispute Resolution Act, or ordered by a court — including school discipline proceedings, juvenile diversion, court-ordered detention, or probation — can be admitted as evidence against that juvenile in a future adjudication hearing under the Nebraska Juvenile Code or in a criminal case. The one exception: it can come in as rebuttal or impeachment evidence. A court can still consider what the juvenile said at sentencing or during a juvenile court’s disposition proceedings, where the question is not guilt but what happens next.

Waiver works the same way it does for mediation: all parties to the restorative justice program must agree in writing to release confidentiality over specific communications or materials. And three of the same exceptions from the mediation statute reappear here, plus one addition tailored to protecting children — a lawsuit against the facilitator or center, a communication made to further a crime or fraud, a conflict with other legal requirements, and, uniquely, a new allegation of child abuse or neglect that section 28-711 requires to be reported and that was not already known or reported.