A new instructional building for the now-combined Arkansas Schools for the Deaf and Blind is nearly finished in Little Rock, and the superintendent walked reporters through parts of it on Tuesday. The facility was designed so deaf and blind students can learn in the same shared spaces, a first for the state, after years of complaints about crumbling conditions at the old campus.
The tour comes nearly three years after KARK reported on poor living and learning conditions at the Arkansas Schools for the Deaf and Blind campus, with help from parents who raised concerns in 2023. That reporting captured broader scrutiny of the campus the same year, when Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and a group of legislators toured the facilities and found them in disrepair, according to Arkansas Business. The new building replaces problems like falling plaster and missing linoleum that plagued the old instructional spaces, per KARK.
A Shared Space Built Around Two Very Different Needs
The new facility is designed to accommodate deaf and blind students in the same areas rather than keeping them in separate buildings, according to KARK. It will serve students who are blind or deaf from preschool through 22 years of age, Arkansas Business reports. Since the schools began operating together, staff have identified 23 students who have both vision and hearing needs, the outlet notes.
Superintendent Nicole Walsh said the facility was designed with connections and protections so students can interact and be challenged, per KARK. The building will include glass partitions meant to provide visibility and definition for deaf students, while also addressing navigation issues that blind students have experienced in the old buildings, KARK reports. The design draws on DeafSpace principles and universal design concepts, according to architecture firm Mackey Mitchell, which says the layout was shaped through more than 55 engagement sessions with students, faculty, families and state leaders.
Classrooms, STEAM Labs and a Storm Shelter
Mackey Mitchell describes a building built to serve pre-K through 12th grade students, with general classrooms, STEAM labs, a media center with a maker space, dining areas, support services and a flexible multipurpose room that doubles as a storm shelter. The firm says the consolidated layout is meant to improve navigation, reduce transitions and promote interaction among students and staff. The new building sits on a hill overlooking the Arkansas River, built behind the campus’s older, outdated brick buildings, according to Arkansas Business.
Brayden Radtka, a student who will move into the new space along with fellow students by next April, said he is excited about the new school and ready to attend, according to KARK. Nicole Walsh told Arkansas Business she was hopeful the new building would be ready for students by December 2026, though the outlet's figure differs from the student move-in timeline KARK reported for next April.
Conflicting Numbers on Size, Cost and Timeline
Reports on the project's scale have varied. Arkansas Business and KARK both describe a 90,000-square-foot facility, while Mackey Mitchell's own project page puts the new academic building at 89,000 square feet, and a March 2025 report from the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette described an 85,000-square-foot building. Funding figures have shifted too: KARK and Arkansas Business both cite roughly $65 million in state funding for the project, while earlier reporting from KATV in February 2024 described a $30 million modernization effort.
The timeline for combining the two schools has also been described differently across sources. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas states that the Arkansas School for the Deaf was administratively consolidated into the Arkansas School for the Deaf and Blind in 2025, while Arkansas Business reported that the schools operated separately until earlier that year, when Sanders and the state Legislature combined their operations. The governor announced plans for a shared facility on February 14, 2024.
