Comprehensive Programs (Regular School Year)
Principal: Miles Fain
Miles Fain
(512) 206-9251
Overview
Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (TSBVI) is a center for educational services for all blind and visually impaired students in Texas. We provide opportunities for children and youth with visual impairments to develop the skills necessary to lead personally, socially, and vocationally satisfying and productive lives.
TSBVI is a special public school established and funded by the state of Texas to provide specialized and intense services that focus on the unique learning needs of students with visual impairments, including those with additional disabilities. The School is accredited by the Texas Education Agency as part of the public education system of Texas. TSBVI provides a broad range of instructional programs and specialized instruction, including a residential program, at no cost to students or their families during the regular school year and in summer programs. Students receive instruction that can prepare them for high school graduation, for return to their local school districts, or for transition to further education, training or placement in local communities.
Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (TSBVI) serves as a special public school in the continuum of statewide placements for students who have a visual impairment. Students, ages 6 through 21, who are blind, deaf-blind, or visually impaired, including those with additional disabilities, are eligible for consideration for services on the TSBVI campus. It is also a statewide resource to parents of these children and the professionals who serve them, from birth through transition from school.
In Comprehensive Programs, students attend school and usually live at the campus in Austin for the regular school year.
This program:
- Provides a comprehensive core curriculum and training in skills for independence to meet the needs of each student during the regular school year.
- Puts a special focus on the expanded core curriculum (ECC):
- Braille and other modes to access the general curriculum
- Orientation and mobility
- Assistive technology
- Career education
- Independent living skills
- Recreation and leisure
- Self-determination
- Sensory efficiency
- Social interaction skills
- Includes opportunity for coursework in Austin ISD schools.
- Includes on-campus residential living skills training.
- Provides weekends home transportation.
- Comes with a full array of recreational and competitive extracurricular activities, including: drama, art, musical performance, student council, track and field, wrestling, goal ball, swim team, rowing and tandem biking.
- Puts a strong emphasis on successful transition to adult life.
General Information
- TSBVI Public Calendar
- Bell Schedule
- Steps to Admission to TSBVI
- General Information for Parents (Required Parent Info for ARDs), Printable Version (PDF)
- Información para los padres
- Adult Students Attending TSBVI
- 2024-2025 TSBVI Course Guide
For Families
- Parent’s Guide to TSBVI Services
- Guía para Padres sobre los Servicios en TSBVI
- Skyward Family Access
- Weekends Home Information
- Parent and Student Handbook and Student Code of Conduct (gdoc)
- Manual para padres y estudiantes y Código de conducta estudiantil (gdoc)
- School Calendars
- Graduation Requirements (English and Spanish)
- Texas Transition and Employment Guide (PDF) / Guía de Transicion y Empleo de Texas (PDF)
- TSBVI Residential Program, Beyond the Classroom: Innovative Approaches to ECC Instruction (Presented at the TAER Conference 4-13-18)
- “What is Dyslexia?”
- Resource Information from the Texas Education Agency Related to Special Education Reporting and Evaluations
For Students
- Parent and Student Handbook and Student Code of Conduct (gdoc)
- Manual para padres y estudiantes y Código de conducta estudiantil (gdoc)
- PSAT/NMSQT Information and Practice Tests
- Texas Transition and Employment Guide (PDF) / Guía de Transicion y Empleo de Texas (PDF)
Library
- Newsletters
- TX SenseAbilities, a publication about visual impairment and DeafBlindness for families and professionals
- TSBVI Library Catalog
- TexShare Databases
- The Heart of the School: The Learning Resource Center (PDF), The Heart of the School: The Learning Resource Center (DOC)