Missouri School for the Blind
| Missouri School for the Blind | |
|---|---|
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| Location | |
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3815 Magnolia Avenue St. Louis, Missouri, 63110 United States |
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| Coordinates | 38°36′30″N 90°14′42″W / 38.60821°N 90.24489°WCoordinates: 38°36′30″N 90°14′42″W / 38.60821°N 90.24489°W |
| Information | |
| Type | Public |
| Established | 1851 |
| Superintendent | Geoffrey Barney |
| Grades | K–12 |
| Enrollment | 67 |
| Website | http://msb.dese.mo.gov/ |
The Missouri School for the Blind is an educational institution in the United States specially designed for students who are blind or visually impaired. It has served the Greater St. Louis area for more than 150 years as a governmental agency of the state of Missouri. In 1860, the Missouri School became the first educational institution in the nation to adopt the braille system. It also owned, developed and operated one of the nation's earliest braille printing presses.
The Missouri School for the Blind is a state-operated agency in St. Louis, Missouri, serving children from kindergarten through twelfth grade. The school opened under the formal name "Missouri Institution for the Education of the Blind" in 1851. It was organized as a private charitable enterprise by Eli William Whelan, a blind teacher who had previously been the superintendent of the Tennessee Institution for the Blind. The Missouri General Assembly placed the school under state control in 1855, and it was given its present name by legislative decree in 1879.
Among the alumni of the Missouri School are the blind musicians John William Boone (1864–1927) and Louis Hardin, aka "Moondog" (1916–1999).
As of 2011, the school has an enrollment of sixty-seven students served by nineteen teachers, forming a student/teacher ratio of 3.5. Modern classrooms are augmented with technologically advanced tools including BrailleNotes and other computers with refreshable Braille displays and text-to-speech functions. The physical location of the school has changed numerous times since it was founded, but it has never closed. It remains in the city of St. Louis, fully operated by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE).
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