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
- Partnership with American Honda and Manchester CT Honda to offer the National Youth Project Using Minibikes (NYPUM) where students learn how to maintain and ride dirt bikes on our campus track
- 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:
Email: GavinCraig@nafi.com
Phone: 860.567.3809
Fax: 860.567.1256
