West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and the Blind

The West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and the Blind (WVSDB) were established by an Act of the Legislature on March 3, 1870.

Students are eligible to enroll at the age of three, must be residents of the state of West Virginia and exhibit a hearing or visual loss sufficient to prevent normal progress in the usual public school setting.

The Romney Classical Institute had lain dormant since the American Civil War when its libraries' volumes were destroyed and its campus was left beyond repair.

Currently, the main campus consists of sixteen major buildings, containing approximately 302,000 square feet (28,100 m2), situated on seventy-nine acres of land.

The historic administration building of the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and the Blind was destroyed by fire on the morning of February 26, 2022.

Faculty and staff at the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind in 1884. Standing left to right: Mr. Shaeffer, Principal John Collins Covell , Abraham D. Hays, and math professor E. L. Chapin; Seated left to right: school founder Howard Hille Johnson , J. B. McGann, Lulie Kern, Martha Clelland, Sarah Caruthers, and deaf school principal H. H. Chidester.
Students from the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and the Blind performing for Governor Earl Ray Tomblin at the West Virginia State Capitol , 2016