New York State School for the Deaf at Rome.

CURRENT FUNCTIONS. The New York State School for the Deaf at Rome (in Oneida County) is the sole state owned and operated school for the deaf in the state. The school receives deaf children between the ages of 3 and 21 who demonstrate hearing loss within established measurable parameters. Pupils are appointed to the school by the commissioner of education according to Education Department regulations. Governance of the school is through a nine-member Advisory Board of Visitors, appointed by the Regents for five-year terms, which advises the school's superintendent. The school offers programs in preschool, elementary, and secondary education, including prevocational and vocational training. Throughout its long and distinguished history the school has maintained a reputation as one of the nation's model schools for the deaf.

ORGANIZATIONAL HISTORY. The school opened in 1875 and operated continuously as a private school, with some state support, until it became a wholly state owned and operated facility in 1963. Since that time the school has been under the jurisdiction of the State Education Department and the Board of Regents. The idea to establish a school for the deaf came from Alphonso Johnson, a deaf man who proposed creation of the school to a group of businessmen in Rome, New York, in 1874. Together with Dr. Thomas Gallaudet (oldest son of Thomas H. Gallaudet), these prominent citizens, including Edward Huntington, John Jervis, John Bissell, and Bloomington Beach, established the school. It was incorporated in January 1875 and opened in March 1875 with four pupils in a rented house. It was called the Central New York Institution for Deaf Mutes.

According to Chapter 213 of the Laws of 1875 (which amended Chapter 325 of the Laws of 1863), whenever a deaf mute child under twelve years of age became a charge on the town or county of residence, the town overseer of the poor or the county supervisor could place the child in one of several institutions for the deaf, such as the Central New York Institution for Deaf Mutes. Children thus placed were maintained at the school (until age twelve) at the expense of the county from which they came. The school was also placed on equal footing with schools for deaf mutes at New York City and Buffalo, where pupils were supported at public expense through appropriations of the State legislature. Chapter 13 of the Laws of 1876 authorized the school to receive deaf and dumb persons between the ages of 12 and 25 who were eligible to appointment as state pupils. The superintendent of public instruction was authorized to make such appointments.

Additional accommodations were leased in intervening years until the school's first permanent building was erected in 1879. State appropriations financed further construction as the student population increased. Permanent buildings housed boys and girls separately. By 1887 there were 135 pupils and the "Central New York Institution for the Improved Instruction of Deaf-Mutes at Rome" was receiving nearly $34,000 in appropriations. After a one-year tenure by founding principal Alphonso Johnson, Edward B. Nelson served in that capacity until 1906, the longest tenure in the school's history.

In 1931 the school's name was changed to the Central New York School for the Deaf. Until 1963 the school operated as a private facility, managed and controlled by a corporation and governed by a board of trustees. In January of 1947 the title of principal was changed by the board of trustees to that of superintendent.

Chapter 762 of the Laws of 1963 made the school a state facility by amending the education law (to add article 88), establishing it under jurisdiction and control of the State Education Department. The mission of the school was to "furnish the children of the state suffering from deafness or a combination of deafness and other handicaps, and who may be expected to profit from instruction, such educational opportunities as will enable them, so far as practical, to become useful and well-adjusted citizens of the state." The law set residency requirements for members of the Advisory Board of Visitors appointed by the Regents (at least two members had to reside in Oneida County; the majority had to reside within 50 miles of the school at Rome) as well as terms of office and responsiblities. It also set admission requirements which included legal residency in New York State and depended upon an apportionment plan to be adopted by the department and approved by the school superintendent and other personnel. The name of the school was changed again, to the New York State School for the Deaf.

A massive building program between 1968 and 1971 razed all but one of the original school buildings. By 1975 there were 278 students undertaking a progressive program of education. A multi-million dollar legislative appropriation funded the development of a new campus, and the school is generally acknowledged to be one of the most functional facilities for education of deaf children in the United States.