Mexia State School is located on a 215 acre campus three and a half miles west of Mexia, in Limestone County, Texas. It was founded on April 24, 1946.

The school is a historical landmark, as it was previously a German Prison of War Camp during the 1940’s. The camp housed as many as 5,000 German people when it was in use.

After the closure of the camp, local Limestone County civic leaders made numerous trips to Washington, D.C., and Austin to convince federal and state authorities to convert the land into a school for persons with mental retardation. This decision would make Mexia State School the first Texas school, for persons with mental retardation, to be opened outside the immediate Austin area.

When it first opened, 175 youngsters called Mexia State School home and 44 employees were on staff. At that time, the school operated exclusively out of the former German POW wooden barracks. The 1960’s topped the school’s construction boom with the dedication of 14 new buildings on campus.

Today, Mexia State School is home to more than 525 persons with mild to severely profound mental retardation with 1400 employees on staff.

The school is designed as a self-contained community with its own chapel, recreational activity center, swimming pool, beauty shop, infirmary, vocation training facilities, and six dormitories.

Because many of our residents are severely and profoundly retarded, many of our residents have called Mexia State School home for most of their lives, making the average age of our residents about 50.