Pros: students get a ton of individualized support and unique training that they may not receive from an itinerant VI teacher. They also live in an amazing community of diverse people with similar needs as their own. They are able to make friends with people like them.

Cons: its not reality. Students who spend multiple years at a school for the blind can have a harder time transitioning back into the 'real world.'

Typically students may go for a limited amount of time such as a semester, or maybe even a couple years, depending on their needs.
For some students, the benefits of attending long term outweighs the potential transition and social concerns. Every person is unique and their educational plan will reflect that.

I'd back up what the other answer says. I think some people get a very weird world view from special schools, regardless of what the disability is. The real world is not smothered in braille, it is not full of people who are used to guiding you, it is not always audio described, it is not fully nerfed for blind people. Special school is. People go there and spend the rest of their lives whining about the fact that reality is not like that. It's better to get used to that reality from the start.

I would say that any parent thinking about having a child attend a special school like that should take this very carefully into account. I definitely would not send someone off to a boarding school like that so it's their whole life. People don't need to learn how to exist in a special school. They need to learn how to exist in the world. And the two are not the same.

I went to a public school, but for a year or so, I went to a blind school like once a week to learn typing and braille. I also went there for some special events. If a hybrid approach is possible, I think taht is great. I wish I would have gotten to do Physical Ed there, too, so I could have participated more. However, I'm glad that most of my time was in public school (even though I hated it). It is more realistic and it's good for the other students to know about disabilities and how they do and don't affect your everyday life.

Pros: lots of sex and drugs.

Cons: it was terrible.

Don't do it; I wish I'd never gone. I'm well adjusted now, but yeah, not worth it.

Here are some personal experience:
https://alexman.me/blog/2017/09/11/blindschool/