Texas School for the Deaf

Story

Texas School for the Deaf is a state-operated primary and secondary school for deaf children in Austin, Texas. The oldest public school in Texas that has been continually in operation, it was first opened in 1857 "in an old frame house, three log cabins, and a smokehouse." The school struggled under inadequate funding during the American Civil War and its aftermath with the students eating food that they grew themselves on the school farm. In 1851 the State Board of Education assumed oversight of the school.HistoryThe Texas Legislature created the Texas Institution for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb in 1856, and five trustees appointed by the Governor of Texas governed the new institution. Initially the superintendent of the deaf school was appointed by this board. The school opened in January of the following year, occupying what is today its current campus. By the summer of 1857 there were 11 students enrolled, and until around 1870 the enrollment was 13. During the U.S. Civil War teachers and students made wool clothes and farmed in order to support themselves because the school was unable to pay salaries to the teachers.Around 1868 the school was renamed to the Texas Deaf and Dumb Institution. Around that time the law regarding who appoints the superintendent changed; now the governor of Texas had the power to directly appoint the superintendent. In 1871 the name was changed to Texas Institution for the Deaf and Dumb. A State of Printing office was established at the TSD in 1876. The institution's name changed again to Texas Deaf and Dumb Asylum around 1877.