Background
As a private charity school, Sotpattana School for the Deaf is affiliated to the Office of the Private Education Commission, Ministry of Education of Thailand, providing free-of-charge instructions based on the national standard pre-elementary education curriculum. The School was officially set up on 6th October 1982 by Rev. Fr. Raymond Allyn Brennan, an American Redemptorist priest. Given the registration number 6/2525, Sister Nomjit Areephak became the first licensee. At present, the School is managed by the Diocese of Chanthaburi.
Situated in the same compound as the Pattaya Orphanage, the address of Sotpattana School is 384 Moo 6, Sukhumvit Highway, Naklua Sub-District, Banglamung District, Chonburi Province. The School had a two-storey building with classrooms for day students in kindergarten levels 1 and 2. In 2001, the School expanded its services to cover children in kindergarten level 3. The School opens on weekdays from 8:30 hrs. to 15:30 hrs. Male and female children aged 3-9 years old are accepted. They can be either day students or boarders. Supporting fund for the overall administration is from the Pattaya Orphanage, government subsidy to disabled students, and contributions from parents of the students.
Funding from the European Commission and the Pattaya Orphanage Trust (renamed as Thai Children’s Trust in 2009) in the United Kingdom made it possible for the School to have a new five-storey building constructed within the compound of the Pattaya Orphanage and completed in the academic year 2001. The first three floors are in use by the School, with classrooms on the first two levels and separate dormitories on the third level for male and female boarding students. Orphans in the care of the Pattaya Orphanage make use of the two upper floors as their dormitories.



