[1]: 2 The school had difficulty attracting blind students, and William Ashton Hawkins, a member of the territorial legislature from Alamogordo, introduced and succeeding in 1903 in securing passage of a bill to create the New Mexico Institute for the Blind, to be located in Alamogordo.

[1]: 53 Organizationally the state's "special schools", including NMSBVI, are placed within the New Mexico Higher Education Department.

[10]: 32 The school serves about 800 students throughout New Mexico, through the Alamogordo campus, the pre-school, and the outreach programs.

[11]: 272 [12] The main campus is located at 1900 North White Sands Boulevard in Alamogordo, New Mexico.

[19] In addition to the academic curriculum, students take an "expanded core curriculum" that includes additional skills needed by the visually impaired, such as social interaction skills, career education, technology, independent living, and independent travel.

It was one of the first public schools of any type to make widespread use of the Internet, and by 1996 it had a campus network of more than 100 microcomputers.

[22] Atrisco Heritage Academy HS, Kirtland Air Force Base, and National Museum of Nuclear Science & History are adjacent to but outside of the city limits.Rio Grande HS and Sandia Peak Tramway are near but not in the city limits.