Behavior training focuses on adults, changing student needs

By DAWN PROSSER
Director of Communications
 
“Kids are different today. We have technology, social media, COVID. We had a ton of things that have affected how kids learn, their attention span and how they socialize,” Kelly Kohout, diocesan director of education services, explained.
 
The director pointed out that the 15 Catholic school systems in the Diocese of Sioux City are experiencing more behavior issues “than we ever had.” She said national statistics suggest that 50% of the students in a typical classroom have trauma or some kind of learning disability, which can affect their learning.
 
Thanks to generous grant funds from the FIRE Foundation of Northwest Iowa, some diocesan administrators and schools enrolled in the new Teach to Heal training to learn ways to approach contemporary classrooms and their students. Teams from Boone Sacred Heart, Emmetsburg Catholic, Pocahontas Catholic and Storm Lake St. Mary attended training in late 2025.
 
Teach to Heal training doesn’t focus upon changing students, it focuses upon the adults adjusting their behaviors in interacting with students experiencing behavior difficulties.
 
“This training is changing the perspective of adults in their role of creating learning environments where all children can be successful,” Kohout said. “The attitudes, beliefs and corresponding perceptions of those adults impact whether or not the school can establish a culture that reaches every student.”
 
Teach to Heal training challenges educators to consider reactions such as their facial expressions, vocal tone and demeanor and to model the behavior they want to see from their students.
 
“Teach to Heal trainers are very direct in their language saying that we have to reflect upon ourselves. We can’t expect this child to change. We as the adults have to be the ones to adjust to them,” Kohout said.
 
Danielle Theis created the Teach to Heal program in order that “all teachers understand how to support students with trauma.”
 
“Trauma can mean a lot of things,” Kohout said. “We think of kids who may be in an abusive family. But it can mean a lot of things – going through a divorce, untreated ADHD that escalates into Oppositional Defiance Disorder (ODD). We’ve always separated mental health from the school. Now we have to bring those two together. We’re educating the whole child, right? That’s who we are as Catholics.”
 
Training begins with language used in the school buildings by educators and staff, such as labeling a student, using sarcasm when speaking to students or other language affecting the school culture.
 
Helping students regulate
Kohout explained that when a student is having behavior issues, the procedure is to remove them from the classroom by a trained interventionist or trained paraprofessional who will then assist the child.
 
“We take them out of the classroom, help them regulate using intervention strategies and get them back into the classroom,” she said, adding that the adult would help the student be aware of their actions and what they need to do to return to learning.
 
Deregulation happens through a series of up to six steps, which may take 20-40 minutes, depending upon the child and the situation. Pulling students from their classroom when they are dysregulated isn’t a new practice, but the tools to help them regulate are fairly new.
 
“We have to make sure that when we get them back into the classroom, they are in a safe space where they don’t just immediately become dysregulated because the adult has a difficult time handling the environment,” she said, stressing the importance for all teachers to be trained, if possible.
 
With the non-traditional focus on adults instead of students with Teach to Heal, the approach can be challenging for veteran educators and requires a “big shift in mindset” for staff in general.
 
“It makes them think they’ve been doing it wrong all along,” Kohout said. “But when we know better, we do better. So, as we are learning about how the brain learns, we adjust … But it feels personal, and that’s a hard pill to swallow for some.”
 
Teach to Heal helps educators serve the ever-changing population of students, the director said, and helps to develop a positive culture at the school the more staff members are trained.
 
Expanding training
Educators and administrators who participated in the 2025 training gave Teach to Heal positive reviews and recognized the advantage of training more of their co-workers. Due to high interest, the Catholic Schools Office has scheduled another training in April. Also, the entire Storm Lake St. Mary staff is attending a mandatory training in September, with room for other schools to send staff.
 
“Schools are required to send a team because you can’t just send one person. It is something the whole building has to embrace so this undercurrent of negativity is not happening,” Kohout said. “You have to shift the culture and that takes an administrator and a team.”
 
Each diocesan Catholic school is encouraged to participate in the training and receive the certification.
 
A goal of integrating Teach to Heal to serve students with trauma is to keep them in Catholic schools, the director explained. In the past, Catholic schools may have had to refer a student with behavioral issues to the local public school.
 
“It’s prioritizing where to put funds. We don’t want to let kids go. We want to be able to keep kids and service kids in our schools,” she said, noting there may be some students that a Catholic school could not accommodate. “We know it’s a great place for them. We get to bring Catholicity into everything we do and we don’t want them to have to leave.”
 
By responding to students as people and not problems and recognizing that “behavior is not identity,” Catholic schools are recognizing the dignity of each human in their classrooms.
 
“This formation ensures our schools respond to student needs with consistency, compassion and high expectations – fully aligned with our Catholic mission,” she said.