The top reported proficiency rate is 21% in Math. The lowest is 9% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Deaf/blind
The Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind, known as FSDB, is a state-funded public school operating as its own district under Florida law, administratively tied to St. Johns County but distinct from the county's general school system. It serves students who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind, visually impaired, or deafblind, from prekindergarten through grade twelve. Enrollment is spread across five schools on an eighty-acre campus in St. Augustine: a deaf elementary school, a deaf middle school, a deaf high school, a school for blind and visually impaired students in prekindergarten through eighth grade, and a blind high school. Because FSDB draws eligible students from across Florida rather than from a local attendance zone, families considering it are making a statewide placement decision, not a neighborhood school choice.
Tuition is free to eligible families. Publicly reported information from the school and the state confirms that roughly two-thirds of students board on campus Sunday evening through Friday afternoon, with the remaining third attending as day students. That residential structure is central to how the school functions, and it makes the condition of campus housing and facilities directly relevant to any family weighing enrollment.
On that front, the school has seen sustained state investment. The 2025 Florida Legislature approved a notably large capital appropriation for FSDB, and recent budget cycles have also funded the renovation of McClure Hall and an ongoing series of maintenance and preventative projects across the aging campus. A further capital and preventative-maintenance appropriation appears in the 2026-27 appropriations bill as well, reflecting what looks like a multi-year commitment to modernizing the residential infrastructure rather than a one-time allocation.
State assessment results are reported for FSDB, and a parent reading them should understand the context before drawing conclusions. Proficiency rates on the FAST assessments in English language arts and math, and on the statewide science assessment, run well below Florida averages across nearly every tested grade. In ELA, proficiency rates in the elementary grades are very low, with some improvement in the middle grades before dipping again by eighth grade. Math results follow a different pattern, with the lowest rates in the elementary years and meaningfully higher rates by eighth grade, though still a minority of students reaching proficiency. Science results in the tested grades are also well below state norms.
A parent should interpret these figures carefully. Standard proficiency benchmarks on Florida assessments are designed for a general student population and were not built around the linguistic and sensory access challenges that FSDB students navigate. A deaf student reading through a signed language, or a blind student working without visual access to standard print, faces a fundamentally different testing environment than the one these assessments assume. That does not make the results irrelevant, but it does mean that raw proficiency comparisons against statewide averages carry far less meaning here than they would for a conventional district. A parent who wants a fuller picture of how the school supports academic progress would do well to ask FSDB directly about its approach to literacy in American Sign Language versus spoken English, its orientation and mobility curriculum for blind students, and what post-secondary outcomes look like for graduates.
The comparison data noted that FSDB is the only district in St. Johns County's comparison set, so no peer comparison is possible. Graduation rate and per-pupil spending data were not available in the data provided.
Demographic data is available at the broad level. White students make up the largest share of enrollment, followed by Hispanic and Black students, with smaller shares of Asian and multiracial students. Free and reduced price lunch data was not reported, so economic context for the student body is not available here.
For any family with a child who is deaf, hard of hearing, blind, visually impaired, or deafblind, FSDB represents something genuinely uncommon: a fully state-funded residential school built entirely around that population, with specialized staff, peer communities of students with shared access needs, and a campus that the state has been actively investing in. The academic profile warrants a direct conversation with the school, and the residential nature of the program warrants a visit.
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