School Based Services

Touchstone’s School Based Services (SBS) program provides comprehensive behavioral health services for youth and supports their families by partnering with the school district. The idea is to address behavioral and mental health concerns while bringing the family and the school together to support the youth. SBS provides services to youth in our partner schools on campus, at home, and through virtual telehealth platforms as needed and appropriate.

Touchstone’s SBS program can address a variety of concerns, including anxiety, depression, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, anger management, emotional regulation, trauma, self-harm, suicidal ideation, substance abuse, and more.

How does it work

After the referral is submitted through the youth’s school, a Member Services representative will reach out to schedule an intake, discuss insurance and funding information, and provide information about documents needed for the intake to proceed. Following the intake, youth are assigned an SBS provider. All enrolled youth are provided with care coordination, family support, and Child and Family Team meetings to determine the most effective course of treatment.

SBS providers work with the youth, family, and school to develop an individualized treatment plan and behavior goals. Providers work with the youth and support the family in developing effective coping skills and emotional management techniques to manage symptoms. Therapists may provide individual, family, and/or group therapy to help process mental health concerns. Other services and groups may be available with SBS providers or other programs within Touchstone. SBS providers coordinate and facilitate the interventions with the youth, family, and school to help the youth thrive and sustain successful outcomes.

As part of the SBS program, living skills or therapy, may be offered in groups as appropriate to work on social and emotional skills with others. In addition, the SBS program works closely with other programs and services within Touchstone, such as Health Promotion, which offer a variety of other group options with curriculums with demonstrated positive outcomes.

Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools (CBITS) is a school-based group and individual intervention. It is designed to reduce symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and behavioral concerns. CBITS has been used with middle and high school-aged youth who experienced traumatic life events. Bounce Back is an adaptation of this evidence-based curriculum that is for youth in Kindergarten through 5th grade.

DBT assists youth with emotional difficulties, stress management and healthy decision-making skills. Program addresses distress tolerance, mindfulness, emotional regulation and interpersonal effectiveness skills.

The Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) Skills Group is an evidenced based treatment that helps people manage their emotions and control behavior.  DBT aims to replace unhelpful behaviors with skillful behaviors by focusing on increasing sense-of-self, emotional awareness, and the ability to tolerate distress, as well as decreasing emotional reactivity, interpersonal chaos, and black and white thinking

This is a curriculum focused on helping youth improve their self-regulation and emotional control. It focuses on sorting feelings into four zones and creates a common way to discuss, share, and visualize emotional regulation.  

This evidence-based program has been proven to reduce risky behaviors in youth, including alcohol, tobacco, drug abuse and violence. It helps to teach youth skills to reduce peer pressure, increase self-esteem, increase coping skills, and enhance cognitive and behavioral competence to reducing a variety of risky behaviors. 

Participating Schools

Agua Fria Union High School District

  • Agua Fria High School

  • Agua Fria Online High School

  • Canyon View High School

  • Coldwater Alternative Learning Center

  • Desert Edge High School

  • Goodyear High School

  • Millennium High School

  • New Directions High School

  • Verrado High School

Alhambra Elementary School District

  • Barcelona Elementary School

  • Carol G. Peck School

  • Catalina Ventura School

  • Choice Learning Academy

  • Cordova Elementary School

  • Granada East Elementary School

  • Granada West Elementary School

  • James W. Rice Elementary School

  • Madrid Neighborhood School

  • Sevilla Elementary School East

  • Sevilla Elementary School West

  • Westwood Elementary School

Buckeye Union High School District

  • Buckeye Learning Center

Cartwright Elementary School District

  • Glenn L. Downs Social Sciences Academy

Charter Schools

  • Advance U

  • Arts Academy at Estrella Mountain

  • Southwest Leadership Academy

Glendale Elementary School District

  • Glendale American Elementary School

  • Horizon Elementary School

Laveen Elementary School District

  • Cheatham Elementary School

  • Desert Meadows School

  • Estrella Foothills Global Academy

  • Laveen Elementary School

  • Maurice C. Cash Elementary School

  • Paseo Pointe School

  • Rogers Ranch School

  • Trailside Point Performing Arts Academy

  • Vista del Sur Accelerated Academy

Litchfield Elementary School District

  • Barbara B. Robey Elementary School

  • Belen Soto Elementary School

  • Corte Sierra Elementary School

  • Dreaming Summit Elementary School

  • L. Thomas Heck Middle School

  • Litchfield Elementary School

  • Mabel Padgett Elementary School

  • Palm Valley Elementary School

  • Rancho Santa Fe Elementary School

  • Scott L. Libby Elementary School

  • Troy Gilbert Elementary School

  • Verrado Elementary School

  • Verrado Heritage Elementary School

  • Verrado Middle School

  • Western Sky Middle School

  • White Tanks Learning Center

  • Wigwam Creek Middle School

Roosevelt Elementary School District

  • Bernard Black Entrepreneurial Academy

  • Sunland STEAM Academy

Saddle Mountain Unified School District

  • Desert Sunset Elementary School

  • Ruth Fisher Middle School

  • Tartesso Elementary School

  • Tonopah Valley High School

  • Winter’s Well Elementary School

Tolleson Union High School District

  • Continued Education Academy (CEA)

  • Copper Canyon High School

  • La Joya Community High School

  • Lighthouse

  • Sierra Linda High School

  • Tolleson Union High School

  • University High School

  • West Point High School

  • Westview High School

Washington Elementary School District

  • Ironwood Elementary School

  • John Jacobs Elementary School

  • Lookout Mountain Elementary School

  • Manzanita Elementary

  • Ocotillo Elementary School

  • Roadrunner School

  • Sunburst Elementary School

  • Sunset Elementary School

  • Sweetwater School

  • Tumbleweed Elementary School

School Feedback

School Feedback

  • “We have seen countless students grow and flourish with SBS, learn coping skills and get the help they need.”
  • “I’ve seen TONS of growth with our students!!! They are improving in their ability to use coping skills and strategies and manage their responses to other challenging things that come up.”
  • “Students have fewer office referrals and are more on task in class.”
  • “There was a student where the team started to see an increase in the frequency and intensity of disruptive behaviors. The student also started to self-harm at school. The student was in the office 1 to 2 times per week due to the disruptive behaviors. In the last quarter of the school year, the student is staying in class and starting to participate in class. The student has not self-harmed either.”
  • “A student that struggles to regulate and take accountability. She was DTS and would hit herself so hard when she was in a heightened state it was a struggle to get her to cool off. Since Touchstone came in, she has gotten a bit better still working on using her words to express her wants/needs/ emotions. But she is able to cool off faster than before.”
  • “Have a student who never wanted to come to school and now attends regularly thanks to work that has been done to cope with and support anxious thoughts and feelings.”
  • “We’ve seen several of our students show improved functioning on and off campus. Feedback from students and parents has been very positive.”