Moving to Taipei With Kids: International Schools, Local Schools and Where to Live
By Raytio Ray
International schools in Taipei compared with real 2026/27 fees (TAS, TES, Dominican, Morrison), plus local public schools, bilingual options and family areas.
If you're moving to Taipei with children, pick the school first and the apartment second. Almost every family we help ends up living within a school bus ride of where their kids study, and the gap between international schools in Taipei (close to NT$1 million a year) and a local public school (basically free) is so large that it shapes your whole budget. Here's how the options really compare in 2026, which route fits which family, and where people end up living.
The international schools in Taipei, with real 2026/27 fees
These are from each school's own fee page, checked in October 2026. Prices are per year unless noted.
Taipei American School (TAS), Tianmu. The big name. Tuition is NT$956,770 for pre-K to grade 5 and NT$1,055,105 for grades 6 to 12. On top of that, first-year families pay a one-time NT$350,000 capital fee, a NT$50,000 enrollment deposit and a NT$10,000 application fee, and there's no sibling discount. Your child must hold a foreign (non-ROC) passport and live in Greater Taipei with a parent. Applications run year-round, but many grades fill by April for August entry. Bus service costs NT$35,470 to NT$74,480 a year depending on zone (TAS fees).
Taipei European School (TES), Shilin. British, French and German sections plus IB, on two campuses (primary on Fuguo Road, secondary on Jianye Road, both near Tianmu). The 2026/27 sheet lists NT$337,100 per semester for primary (about NT$674,000 a year), rising to NT$418,000 per semester in the last two years of high school (NT$836,000 a year). There's a one-time NT$50,000 registration fee and a sibling discount of NT$10,000 per semester for the second child. Kids who need English support pay an extra NT$75,000 per semester for EAL, which surprises a lot of non-English-speaking families (TES 2026/27 fees PDF).
Dominican International School, Dazhi (Zhongshan District). Catholic, American-style with AP courses, pre-K to grade 12. All-in annual fees for 2026/27 run from NT$540,558 (grades 1 to 4) to NT$648,388 (grade 12), plus a NT$25,000 placement fee for new students. A valid foreign passport is required, and it doesn't take new grade 12 students (Dominican admissions).
Morrison Academy Taipei, Linkou (New Taipei). Christian, American curriculum. Note the location: it moved to a new campus in Linkou in 2020, so it's not a Tianmu option. On the 2025/26 schedule, elementary tuition was NT$251,000 per semester plus building and registration fees, so roughly NT$590,000 a year all-in; 2026/27 should be a little higher (Morrison fee schedule).
Taipei Japanese School, Shilin. Japanese national curriculum for elementary and junior high, aimed at Japanese families whose parents belong to the Taiwan Japanese Society. If that's you, your company probably already arranged it.
- School: TAS | Area: Tianmu, Shilin | Approx. yearly tuition 2026/27: NT$957,000 to 1,055,000 + NT$350,000 once
- School: TES | Area: Tianmu, Shilin | Approx. yearly tuition 2026/27: NT$674,000 to 836,000
- School: Dominican | Area: Dazhi, Zhongshan | Approx. yearly tuition 2026/27: NT$541,000 to 648,000
- School: Morrison | Area: Linkou, New Taipei | Approx. yearly tuition 2026/27: around NT$600,000
Photo: Wikimedia Commons, public domain
Private bilingual schools: the middle road
Private bilingual schools teach the Taiwanese curriculum in Mandarin plus a big block of English with foreign teachers. Kang Chiao (康橋), with campuses in Xindian and Linkou in New Taipei, is the best known: Taiwanese media put its elementary tuition at about NT$150,000 to 180,000 per semester, or roughly NT$360,000 to 400,000 a year once meals, buses and materials are added. Fuhsing (復興) in Da'an has a bilingual department too.
Parents on Forumosa are honest about this tier. One father who put his kids in bilingual schools said they did fine at a young age and picked up real Mandarin, and the price gap versus international schools "didn't hurt either." Others warned that many schools calling themselves bilingual are closer to "wannabe international schools," so visit and sit in on a class. Another parent found their child with ADHD was quietly unwelcome at a private school and moved him to public school.
Local public schools: free, Mandarin, and more doable than you think
Foreign children with an ARC can attend public elementary and junior high schools. You enroll at the school for the district (學區) of your ARC address, with passports and ARCs. Tuition is negligible, and from 31 August 2026 Taipei City gives free lunch to every public and private elementary and junior high student.
The catches, from parents who've done it:
- Popular schools fill up. One family living next to Ren'ai Elementary in Da'an was told it was an "overfilled school" and initially sent to another school in the zone. They got in after requesting their entry and exit records from immigration to prove how long they'd lived at the address. Lesson: update your ARC address as soon as you sign your lease.
- There's real help for new arrivals. Xinsheng Elementary in Da'an runs a language class (語文教育班) for kids arriving from non-Mandarin countries, and Taipei runs Mandarin support groups for transferring students.
- Short days, lots of homework. Lower grades finish at noon most days. Families use an after-school program (安親班), which parents put at around NT$10,000 a month and up.
- Public kindergarten is close to impossible. It's a lottery and foreign families rarely get in. Private kindergartens typically start around NT$20,000 a month.
- Junior high is intense. Several long-term parents said elementary is fine, but ages 13 to 18 in the local system are a pressure cooker.
Which route for which family
On a 2 to 3 year assignment, kids going back to an English system: international school, full stop. Our pick is TES if you're European or have two or more kids (the sibling discount and IB help), TAS if you're American and your employer pays, since the NT$350,000 capital fee hurts if it's your own money. Dominican is the value pick if you're paying yourself and want an American-style diploma.
Staying long-term, want kids truly bilingual: a bilingual school like Kang Chiao, or public elementary with English at home. Public school under age 9 is the best Mandarin deal in Taipei, and it costs almost nothing.
Mandarin-speaking or half-Taiwanese family: local public school, and spend the savings on a good apartment near it.
Homeschooling: some families use their home country's online school. It works, but Taiwan's own homeschool system (實驗教育) is built around kids with household registration, so plan for social life through sports clubs and co-ops.
Where families actually live
Photo: 臺北市政府工務局公園路燈工程管理處 via Wikimedia Commons, Attribution
Tianmu and Shilin. The default for TAS and TES families: wide sidewalks, parks, imported groceries, and bigger apartments than central Taipei. Expat-grade three bedrooms in managed buildings are pricey: one 3BR listing in a building full of Japanese and American families asked NT$70,000 a month plus NT$4,000 management fee. Older buildings a few blocks back cost far less. The downside is the MRT: Shilin and Zhishan stations are a bus ride away, so the working parent's commute matters.
Neihu and Dazhi. Best for Dominican families and anyone working in Neihu Science Park. Newer buildings, more space per dollar, riverside parks. See our Neihu guide.
Da'an. For public school families who want walkable city life, Da'an Park and good schools, at the highest rents per square meter. See renting in Da'an.
Xinyi. Polished and central, but family-size units in newer towers are expensive. Works if one parent works near Taipei 101 and kids take a school bus north.
For a wider comparison, read our best area to live in Taipei for foreigners.
Photo: xiangyang17 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Health insurance and childcare
NHI for kids. If a parent is a foreign professional (white-collar work permit or employed Gold Card holder), spouse and children can join NHI as soon as they have an ARC. Other ARC holders and their families wait six months, so buy private cover for the gap (our NHI gap guide). Babies born in Taiwan with an ARC are covered from birth.
Childcare. Government-capped "quasi-public" daycare centers charged up to about NT$18,500 a month in 2025, with registered nannies capped around NT$15,200 for daytime care. The generous subsidies that make this cheap for locals usually need household registration, so foreign families should expect to pay close to the full price.
Landing and moving in with kids
Arriving with children usually means arriving with a mountain of luggage, tired kids and no idea yet how the Airport MRT works. Our airport transfer service has someone waiting at arrivals at Taoyuan or Songshan to take the whole family straight to your short-term stay. And when you get the keys to your apartment, a move-in deep clean before the kids unpack and start crawling around the floors is worth it, especially in an older unit. Both are quoted individually.
A simple order of operations
1. Shortlist two schools and email admissions before you book flights. TAS and TES grades fill by spring.
2. Pick a neighborhood on the school's bus routes, then start the apartment search. Ask the school for its current bus map; routes can change from year to year. (If you're searching from abroad, this is the part TRA can help with: lining up family apartments on those routes so you can view them soon after you land.)
3. Sign the lease and update your ARC address right away, especially for public school.
4. Sort NHI or private insurance before the first fever.
Once the school is decided, finding the home near it is our job. We line up family apartments near your school or on its bus routes, view them with you, handle the landlord in Chinese, and go through the contract clause by clause before you sign. See our services.