Middle Schools in Deaf/Blind

The Deaf/Blind district contains a single middle school, Deaf Middle School (Fsdb), located in St. Augustine, Florida, serving grades 6 through 8 with a very small enrollment of 78 students. This specialized school is designed for students with significant hearing and vision impairments, and its data reflects the unique challenges and intensive resources required for this population.

The most striking feature of Deaf Middle School (Fsdb) is the "high spend, low performance" paradox. The school spends an extraordinary $47,918 per student and maintains a very low student-teacher ratio of 5.5 to 1, which is far more resource-intensive than typical public schools. Despite this investment, academic proficiency rates are critically low compared to state averages. For example, English Language Arts proficiency ranges from 17% to 18% across grades, while the state average is about 61%. Math proficiency varies from 8% in 6th grade to 33% in 8th grade, with the 8th-grade math score being a relative bright spot. Science proficiency for 8th graders is just 13%, compared to the state average of 52%. These numbers indicate that the school is addressing profound learning needs, and progress should be measured against these challenges rather than against typical schools.

On a positive note, chronic absenteeism at Deaf Middle School (Fsdb) is 21.1%, which is lower than both the district average of 29.8% and the state average of 31.4%. This suggests the school provides a supportive environment that students want to attend. However, the school faces an extreme socioeconomic challenge, with 87.18% of students qualifying for free or reduced lunch, adding another layer of complexity to its mission. The school ranks in the 6th percentile statewide (1141 out of 1216), placing it in the bottom 10% of Florida middle schools. For parents, this school represents a highly specialized, resource-heavy environment where academic outcomes are modest but reflect the significant obstacles its students overcome daily.