The objectives of this thesis are to study demographic characteristics, disability characteristics, fundamental data, educational status, educational opportunities, and factors influencing educational opportunities for children with hearing impairments. The sample size is 7,293 cases from the fundamental survey of in-school and pre-school disabled persons in Thailand (0-19 years old). The survey conducted by Institute of Population and Social Research, Mahidol University in 1998 is employed in the analysis with the data from the Ministry of Education, and National Youth Bureau. The methods of analysis used are frequency, percentage, Crosstabulation and Logistic Regression Analysis. The results indicated male children have slightly more hearing disabilities than females. Most are between 6-11 years old. The amount of deaf children is four times higher than children that are hard of hearing. Most of them were born impaired, have no other disabilities; and live with parents. More than half of them are not registered as impaired. Among children with hearing disability, 60% have never been in school. Nine out of ten currently attending school began their study after the age requirement; most of them are commuters and study in regular schools within their home provinces. Of those who went to school, only three out of ten completed compulsory education. The main reasons for children not completing compulsory education are: teased or exasperated by friends; and economic difficulty. Main reasons for children who have completed their compulsory education but did not continue their study are: finished the highest class; economic difficulty; and did not want to go to school. Main reasons for children who cannot get into school are: cannot take care of themselves; economic difficulty; and no school for the impaired in their areas. Factors influencing the educational opportunity for children are: sex, age, age when the disability occurred, type of disabilities, having other collective disabilities, registration for the impaired, regions of residence, and the availability - within the province - of special schools concerning hearing deficiency. These findings suggest public relations should be emphasized in order to make people understand and not offend, but accept impaired children. Parents should be encouraged to take their children to school at a young age or as soon as they notice the disability. Furthermore, people or agencies concerned should enhance the educational opportunities for children with hearing disabilities, by setting special schools or supporting participation with normal students. The enhancement should be wide spread to cover all ages