Touchstone School

Touchstone-school

Nestled in the hills of Northwestern Connecticut, Touchstone School is located on a beautiful, private, rural campus in Litchfield. Touchstone School is a small, private, state-approved special education day school for females ages 12-18 and grades 7-12. We currently educate school-placed day students in addition to group home students placed in the Touchstone Program and Multidisciplinary Family Therapy Program (MDFT).

Touchstone School’s primary goal is to provide short-term education and treatment to students with the objective of successfully returning to and being successful in their community schools. Highly trained teachers, clinicians, and support staff utilize a research-based and social-relatedness/ community-focused process called the Normative Approach to drive a culture of caring and support. The Normative Approach is based on the assumption that all people have a need to belong, want to have a sense of purpose, and want to experience success. Staff implements the Tri-Model system, which harnesses elements of Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports (PBIS) and Restorative Practices to form norms, provide regular feedback, reinforce success, and respond to difficulties in a structured and therapeutic way.

Our Purpose:

  • Provide education to students with intensive social, emotional, and behavioral needs
  • Support and teach personal, social, and educational skills with a whole-child focus
  • Work with school districts to implement and update students’ IEPs
  • Deliver intensive counseling via Licensed Clinical Social Workers (LCSW)
  • Afford an accelerated rate of credit via our course schedule and credit recovery opportunities
  • Offer specialized courses in career and life skills, fine arts, personal finance, social emotional learning, and nutrition and physical activity.

Highlighting our Next Generation Approach:

  • Collaboration with Goodwin College to offer Career and Technical Education (CTE) integrated experiences like their Mobile Training Lab
  • 21st century technology including 1:1 student laptops, Smartboards or TV’s, and structured supports to safely reintroduce the internet as a structured learning tool

At Touchstone School, we are committed to supporting, molding, and inspiring personal, social and educational growth.

Program Contact:

Director of Education: Katie Ryan, M.A., S.Y.C.
Email: KatieRyan@nafi.com
Phone: 860.567.3809
Fax: 860.567.1256