Lutheran Family Services of Virginia

Today is a typical school day, and the six rising first-

and second-graders in Leanne Decker’s Minnick School

summer session class are doing what kids do during

recess—playing at warp speed.

They collect playground artifacts, shoot baskets, play tag

and pet imaginary dogs. There are a lot of “good jobs,”

a lot of “I love those manners” or “Thank you for using

your words” from Ms. Decker and her two assistants, Tony

Hostetler and Sean Powers.

So far not very different from many school or family

practices. But something is different: during recess Decker

is busy filling out communication sheets that briefly

describe each child’s behavior in 15-minute increments. At

the end of the day, the sheets go home with the child, along

with any concerns noted by Decker.

It is this continuous information-gathering and recording

that is the foundation of the successful School-Wide

Positive Behavior System (SWPBS) that the LFSVA Minnick

Schools implemented last year.

“Looking at this data over weeks and months helps us see

what days were good and where

the problems are so that we can

help head them off,” said Decker.

To help her students stay on track,

Decker’s classroom has a picture

schedule and a red countdown

clock to help students build time

awareness and transition to the

next activity. There are lots of

snacks available and the dispensing

of tickets, lots of tickets.

Tickets are a big part of the school-wide behavior

system, which emphasizes incentives and other positive

reinforcement from all of the adults in a child’s environment.

Can a new approach

to discipline set the

stage for learning?

Positively!Teacher Leanne Decker & students Photo by Dan Montgomery

“You want to teach children to make good choices; that is where the art is.”

—Brenda Showalter, Harrisonburg

Minnick Principal

cantinued inside...

FALL 2015

Everyone is invested in helping Chris learnWith the entire Minnick School invested in his success, Chris, the young fellow in the story, has made huge strides in classroom behavior. And that means he can focus better on learning.

At the end of the summer, Minnick School Principal Brenda Showalter sat down with the team working with Chris to look at his behavior data from the previous 12 months, mostly to make sure that he would continue to get the support he needed in the new school year.

What she saw was amazing progress. “His aggression graph was like a ski slope,” said Showalter.

Even with a month between the summer session and the start of school in August, Showalter said that Chris’s transition has been “phenomenal” and his progress steady.

Now Chris remains in the classroom; last spring, he was running out multiple times a day. Now outbursts are the exception, not the rule. Now he is able to learn and practice better ways to interact with his peers.

“It’s not just handing out tickets for incentives or collecting data,” she said, “it is looking at patterns and seeing what individual students need.” In Chris’s case, it is down time. He likes to retreat to a little spot in the school and be by himself.

“The key is that Chris has learned that he needs to earn his time alone,” said Showalter.

It’s likely that Chris will be able to return to his home school. Showalter and her team will work with teachers and staff there to make sure that he has some of the supports that have helped him succeed so well at the Minnick School.

For now, his Min-nick village will continue to help him learn the im-portant lessons of school—and life.

—Carole Todd•LFSVA has Minnick Schools in Roanoke,

Harrisonburg, Wytheviille and Wise with a new campus opening in Bristol at the end of the year! Would you like more information about our Minnick Schools? Visit lfsva.org or call 1.800.359.3834.

Chris

Photo by Dan Montgomery

Anyone in the school who sees a student showing good

behavior can hand out tickets that are redeemable in

the school store. “With SWPBS everyone is focused on

reinforcing good behavior,” said Brenda Showalter,

Harrisonburg Minnick Principal.

“Teaching is the difference between SWPBS and

typical discipline. Often students are disciplined after

the behavior occurs, and there is not a lot of attention

given to making sure the student understands the

better behavior,” said Showalter. “With this system

you teach the replacement behavior and then work

with students to help them use the new behaviors

more and the inappropriate ones less.”

Now it is after lunch and Chris has hit the wall. For

most of the day this tall, quick-to-smile rising first-

grader has happily transitioned from subject to subject,

from group to individual activities—even leading his

classmates in from the playground.

He doesn’t want to do math and is yelling “I wanna

play” over and over.

Hostetler and Powers come immediately to his side.

One holds up a large screen to shield him from the

overwhelming sensory input that has most likely

triggered his meltdown, and the other hustles him out

of the classroom.

And all the while, the rest of the students ignore him.

Completely. And for doing so, they receive a ticket.

The classroom assistants offer Chris choices: Do you want

a break? Do you want to continue working? Do

you want to sit in the bean bag chair? When he

makes the better choice, he gets a ticket.

The system is going well and the staff is seeing

improvement in behavior and learning what

works and what doesn’t. “No system works

for all children,” said Showalter. “Modifying

behavior is a dance. You look to de-escalate,

share the power, and offer reasonable options.

You want to teach children to make good choices;

that is where the art is.” —Carole Todd

Can a new approach... continued

Part of the best team ever: A new familyNick grips the bark of a backyard tree

and scrambles up to a perch among its

broad leaves. It’s a pretty good spot

for a photo with his parents. Nick was

adopted by Kelly and Mary Clanahan

last month, so he is, after all, the

newest branch on the family tree.

The Clanahans had prior experience

blending families. Nick, 16, has a

brother and sister from his father’s

previous marriage and two brothers

from his mothers’.

In addition, Kelly and Mary are high

school track and cross-country coaches

of the sort who treat their teams like

family. They have lent a sympathetic

ear to many a teenager with a problem

to share and quietly helped athletes

with food, shoes, and clothes.

So while the Clanahans had enjoyed the

quiet after their youngest moved out, they

still had time, energy and love to share.

A pivotal moment came one

Sunday morning before church.

They were watching NBC4-TV

Washington’s weekly program,

“Wednesday’s Child,” which

profiles area children in need of

families. They saw a segment

about a girl who said, “I want a

place to call home.”

Kelly called, and though

nothing came of that inquiry,

the Clanahans began checking the

program’s web site each week and

praying about parenting another

child. When they saw Nick’s bio, in

late 2013, it felt right, and they called.

Lutheran Family Services called back

within 30 minutes, “and the ball

started rolling,” Mary said.

“You take that leap of faith,” Mary

said. “To do that, you take in the

whole scope, you accept what God has

blessed you with.”

There were signs this was going to

work. Mary’s eldest son and Nick look

like, well, brothers; after meeting the

Clanahans, Nick asked his caseworker

when he could see them again; his first

full weekend with the Clanahans was

on Mother’s Day weekend; he moved

in with them on Father’s Day.

But there was more here than just

the stars aligning.

“The Clanahans are very patient,

very understanding,” said Lauren

Knox, treatment foster care manager in

LFSVA’s Winchester office. “They work

well with Nick in particular: They are

able to have discussions with him, versus

getting into a power struggle. They are a

great family to work with.”

Nick shares his parents’ philosophy

about celebrating the good and

accepting the bad. That approach fits

perfectly with his favorite sports (he

is serious about basketball and long-

distance running—and yes, his parents

are his coaches at Stonewall Jackson

High in Quicksburg), but it proved

especially valuable during his years

without a permanent family.

Nick’s advice for teenagers in foster care:

“Just don’t quit. Whatever happens,

don’t ever quit. You don’t know how your

story’s going to go, so you have to make

the best of it at every turn. You have to

keep on trucking, but also step back

every once in a while and take in what

you’re doing.”

—Dan Montgomery

•Are you thinking about foster care or adoption? Or do you know someone who might be considering these life-affirming options? Call 1.800.359.3834 for more information or visit our web site at lfsva.org. We walk with you every step of the way.

“Just don’t quit. Whatever happens, don’t ever quit.”

—Nick Clanahan

The Clanahan family Photo by Dan Montgomery

After the adoption. When adoptive families run into

difficulties, they need knowledgeable professionals who can

help. Lutheran Family Services is offering outpatient mental

health services in Southwestern Virginia and Tidewater to help

adoptive families cope with the trauma and loss that can be

part of adoption. This service is available through a grant from

the Virginia Department of Social Services and the Center for

Adoption Support and Education (C.A.S.E.). LFSVA also offers

W.I.S.E. UP, developed by C.A.S.E. to help children, teens and

their parents cope with questions about adoption. For more

information, call Leslie Wright, a licensed, adoption-competent

counselor, at 804.288.0122, ext. 6604, or email lwright@lfsva.org.

Making your planned gift is easy. Your annual gifts are very

important to the nearly 730 individuals and children touched by

LFSVA each day, and they are very much appreciated! Estate gifts

have an even greater impact because they help ensure the future

of these services at LFSVA. Making a planned gift can be as easy

as adding a few simple sentences to your will or designating a

beneficiary to your life insurance or annuities. If you would like

more information on making an estate gift, please contact Ellen

Bushman; ebushman@lfsva.org or call 757.722.4707, ext. 1302.

ymission moments

promise, restored

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2609 McVitty Road, Roanoke, VA 24018

Wish listWe are humbled and grateful for your gifts, many of which have come by way of Amazon. There are two great ways to support LFSVA through Amazon:

�Go to AmazonSmile and designate us as your favorite charitable organization. When you shop at smile.amazon.com, Amazon will donate a portion of the purchase price to LFSVA at no cost to you.

� Take a look at our wish list on Amazon where you will find books, PE equipment and other items to buy for the individuals we serve.

For more information, please contact Leah Hatcher at lhatcher@lfsva.org or call 1.800.359.3834. Get your smile on!

Our MissionWorks is published by LFSVA. Editor: Carole Todd, ctodd@Lfsva.org. Staff writer & photographer: Dan Montgomery, dmontgomery@lfsva.org. Learn more at lfsva.org!