Board for Texas State Hospitals and Special Schools

The Board for Texas State Hospitals and Special Schools was established by the Fifty-first Legislature in the spring of 1949 to govern the state hospitals and state schools formerly under the jurisdiction of the Board of Control. A nine-member board, of which no more than three could be physicians, was appointed by the governor, with concurrence by the Senate, to six-year overlapping terms. The board approved budgets for the central office and each individual institution. In 1956 the board exercised oversight of twenty-two hospitals and special schools. It was abolished in 1965 and its duties transferred to other departments, primarily the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation.