A Bronx executive director’s childhood experiences with the visually impaired have shaped his path to heading one of the country’s oldest and respected schools for the blind.
Brian Darcy, 59, assumed the role as the New York Institute For Special Education (NYISE) executive director last July, prior to the start of the 2025-26 academic year.
Originally from Montana and now a Bronx resident, Darcy told the Bronx Times both of his parents were educators. His father, Ronald, was an itinerant teacher, a school district superintendent and a director of education and outreach while his mother, Loretta, spent years working as a teacher’s assistant.
When Brian was in grade school, his parents moved the family to Idaho where they continued their careers in education and started a local summer camp for the blind.
Darcy, who lives with his wife Jennifer on the 18-acre NYISE campus, told the Bronx Times he was only one of two sighted kids who attended the camp. However, his parents made him wear shades over his eyes to temporarily diminish his eyesight and force him to navigate through various camp activities as if he were partially sighted.
“I grew up around this,” Darcy said, when asked by the Bronx Times what originally drew him to this particular line of work. “There were at least three or four weeks each year when I went through the same experiences as those campers who were visually impaired.”
Growing up, Darcy’s sister, Robin, was adopted after his father had been driving in Montana and stumbled across an abandoned blind child on a tribal reservation, located six hours from the Darcy home by car.
The early years with his sister introduced Darcy to the experience of always being in the presence of someone who was visually impaired — someone who would later graduate from the Idaho School for the Deaf and Blind. Though sighted, being blind became a big part of Darcy’s life.
Darcy graduated from Carroll College in Helena, Montana on a basketball scholarship with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and later a Master of Science degree at Idaho State University. He told the Bronx Times his first year as NYISE executive director was an amazing experience.
“It’s a flagship school for the U.S. and I’m just proud to be a part of it along with its great history,” Darcy said.
Darcy took over for the school’s previous executive director, Dr. Bernadette Kappen, who retired in 2025 after she had held the position for 17 years.
Prior to the beginning of his NYISE tenure, Darcy served for 15 years as administrator of Idaho’s Educational Services for the Deaf and Blind, the state agency for the school which provides more than 25 services for students with sensory impairments or disabilities.
He also said the change from life in Idaho has been significant but has still very much enjoyed the difference between the two locations.
“There’s a big contrast between the Bronx and where we were before (Idaho), but we’ve absolutely welcomed the change and it’s been just fantastic.”
Founded in 1831 as the New York Institute for the Blind, NYISE continues to provide specialized education and various services for children and adolescents with disabilities.
Through the school’s Schermerhorn Program, the private, non-profit offers diverse educational services to meet the needs of legally blind children between the ages of 5 and 22, while the Readiness Program also offers full-day support services and education for preschoolers in the borough with developmental disabilities.
NYISE, which moved to its current location at 999 Pelham Pkwy. N in 1924, has also adapted several sports teams, including teams for wrestling, swimming, track and field, cheerleading, basketball and goalball, the latter of which is a Paralympic sport where all participants wear eye shades.
The school competes as a member of the Eastern Athletics Association for the Blind.
Last school year, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) took a trip to NYISE and wrestlers played goalball with the students, followed by a snow cone social. The visit concluded with students giving the WWE a tour of the NYISE property.
“We have a very dedicated team of educators here who really go above and beyond,” Darcy added when speaking about the NYISE staff. “There are a lot of educators who can’t do what they do — they are unicorns with their craft.”
NYISE is the second oldest school for the blind in the United States, behind only the Perkins School for the Blind in Massachusetts, which was established two years earlier.
“What I’ve learned the most from them (the students) is there is no limit with perseverance,” Darcy said. “I’m in awe of any child learning something for the first time, and to watch what they do with those lessons is amazing.”
