About

Waterford Country School has been serving children and families for nearly 100 years. The Therapeutic Boarding Program provides a spectrum of services to youth who cannot be served in their home communities because of special education and behavioral health issues. Our evidenced based, trauma informed treatment model, developed by Cornell University, is called CARE (Children and Residential Experiences) and focuses on the relationships between the child and staff. We do not utilize traditional behavioral incentive systems, but instead work with the youth in moments of crisis to determine the causes of the behavior and teach better coping skills. The more a youth struggles the more opportunities we give them to be successful rather than taking opportunities away, as traditional behavioral systems do. The Therapeutic Boarding Program was established in 2017 for middle-school and high school aged boys. The campus is located on 320 acres in a rural area and youth reside and attend school on our grounds. The school also educates approximately 60 day-students from surrounding towns with an average classroom size of 6-8 students with one teacher and one aide in each classroom. We have a farm on our campus with over 80 animals including goats, sheep, pigs, horses, mini horses, birds, reptiles and our newest addition, cuddle cows. The program encourages the youth to interact with the animals during and after school hours. We place youth from across the country with a variety of struggles such as anxiety, depression, school avoidance behaviors, high functioning autism, and many more. Most of our youth are funded by school districts. Services include individual, group, and family therapy that is strength based and trauma informed, numerous recreational activities, and participating in community athletics. Youth are also participants on the Challenge Ropes Course, where teamwork, trust and personal achievement are the focus.