By admin TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) – A new private school for blind and visually impaired students is coming to downtown Tucson.
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The Tucson School for the Blind will open this upcoming school year and aims to serve students affected by the recent move of the Arizona State Schools for the Deaf and the Blind.
In a few months, the school will welcome more than a dozen visually impaired students. The school’s founder, Kate Scally, said she was worried blind and visually impaired students wouldn’t get the support they needed at public schools and wanted to provide another option for families who felt the same way.
Sierra Vinson’s daughter, Elena, has been attending the ASDB for five years.
After learning ASDB’s Tucson campus was closing and visually impaired students wouldn’t be accommodated at the new school in Oro Valley, Vinson said she didn’t know what they would do.
“It came out of nowhere. Then, just finding out that the blind kids wouldn’t be going, it was a lot. She’s been crying,” Vinson said.
“She’s been in TUSD; we personally didn’t have good experiences. I didn’t want to put her back,” Vinson said.
Elena’s teacher, Kate Scally, said she didn’t want that either. She worked with students like Elena for nearly 15 years at ASDB and worried that visually impaired students wouldn’t get the support they needed at public schools.
That’s why she’s been working for months to secure a lease, teachers, and funding to open the Tucson School for the Blind — a new nonprofit school designed to serve blind students impacted by the other school’s move.
“In talking to people, we just didn’t see this option to maintain the student-peer community, so we felt strongly that we should try to see if we could do it,” Scally said.
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She said they already have 14 visually impaired students enrolled for the upcoming school year and plan to offer specialized, one-on-one instruction for grades K-12. That includes smaller class sizes with adaptive equipment, instructional aids, and multiple teachers of the visually impaired (TVIs). Several former ASDB teachers will also be able to keep working with the students they’ve known for years.
“I really love working with these students. And I also really believe that they should have the opportunity to stay with teachers and students that they have connections with,” Scally said.
Scally recently signed the lease for the school, which is located at 149 N Stone Avenue. She said they’re hoping to open for the 2026-2027 school year on Aug. 3, which means they’ll need all the help they can get. Despite the uphill battle, Scally said they’re excited to get to work and ensure students like Elena have a school to call home this fall.
“She’s gonna be able to have the same opportunities, I feel like. We have all the things set in place – I feel like she’ll be able to thrive and learn more, maybe with a smaller community now, and I think that it will be fantastic, won’t it?” Vinson said.
The Tucson School for the Blind’s startup fundraising campaign has officially launched, and Scally said they’re in need of monetary donations, as well as monitors and other equipment. For more information on how to donate or to learn about enrollment opportunities, you can visit their website HERE.
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