Texas School for the Deaf

Texas School for the Deaf (TSD) is a state-operated primary and secondary school for deaf children in Austin, Texas. Opened in 1857 "in an old frame house, three log cabins, and a smokehouse", it is the oldest continually-operated public school in Texas. 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 1951 the State Board of Education assumed oversight of the school. History The Texas Legislature created the Texas Institution for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb in 1856, with five trustees appointed by the Governor of Texas governing the new institution. Initially the superintendent of the deaf school was appointed by the board of trustees. The school opened in January of the following year, occupying its current campus. By the summer of 1857 there were 11 students enrolled, and until around 1870 the enrollment was 13. During the 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 printing office was established at the TSD in 1876. The institution's name changed again to Texas Deaf and Dumb Asylum around 1877. Originally TSD only served white students and had white teachers. Black students attended the Texas Blind, Deaf, and Orphan School, which had been established in 1887. As a result, the two schools developed divergent sign-language dialects.