What your school can charge, keep, and do about unpaid fees

Most fee disputes between parents and Dubai schools are not really disputes about money. They are disputes about a rule one side knows and the other does not. KHDA publishes a Registration and Refund Policy for all Dubai Private Schools, most recently issued in May 2026, and it settles far more of these arguments than parents realise. This guide is what it says, in plain English, with the parts that matter most to you first.

One boundary before we start: this is Dubai and KHDA only. Abu Dhabi private schools are regulated by ADEK under different rules, and nothing below can be relied on there.

What a school may charge before your child starts

Three separate payments can land before a child sits in a classroom, and each has its own cap. They are not interchangeable, and two of the three are advance payments against tuition rather than extra cost.

• The application fee covers assessment and admin. It is refundable if your child is not offered a place after assessment, or if the school took it without first telling you no place was available or that your child would be waitlisted. It is not refundable if the school makes a formal offer and you turn it down.
• A registration deposit may only be requested after a formal offer has been issued and you have accepted it. A school asking for a deposit before it has offered your child a place is not following the policy.
• Beyond the registration or re-registration deposit, a school cannot ask for any additional payment to secure or hold a place.

The 60-day rule that decides whether a deposit comes back

This is the single most expensive detail on the page. Both the registration and the re-registration deposit are refundable only if you formally notify the school at least 60 calendar days before the start date. Give notice on day 59 and the deposit is gone. Calendar days, not school days, and the clock runs to the start of the academic year in question.

Two timing rules sit alongside it. Schools starting in September may only collect the re-registration deposit after the spring break, with a deadline no earlier than 1 May. Schools starting in April may only collect after the winter break, with a deadline no earlier than 1 February. And if you simply do not pay it by the deadline and your child does not enrol the following year, the school cannot come after you for that deposit later. It loses the right to it, though it also stops guaranteeing the place.

A school also needs KHDA approval before it may refuse to re-register a student. That is not a decision it can make alone.

Leaving mid-year: how the refund is actually calculated

Refunds are worked out term by term, from the withdrawal date recorded on the Withdrawal Certificate, which is the date you specified in your withdrawal request. The tiers are blunt:

On the extras: mandatory service fees paid before the year starts are refundable. Optional services such as transport, trips and activities follow the terms you agreed at the time, and are refundable before the year starts provided no binding third-party contract is in place. Book fees are refundable only if your child leaves before the academic year begins.

One more constraint worth knowing when you budget: tuition can be collected in no more than three termly instalments, and the first cannot exceed 40% of the annual fee, with the second and third capped at 30% each. Schools may instead offer ten equal monthly instalments. For what all of this adds up to across a year, see what a UAE school year actually costs.

If you fall behind: what a school may and may not do

This is the half of the policy that is almost never written about, and it is the half that matters most if money gets tight. The short version: a school cannot move quickly, cannot do more than one thing to you, and cannot involve your child.

No formal consequence may be applied until at least 30 calendar days have passed from the original due date, and only after the school has completed and documented all six of these steps:

1. A first written reminder after the due date has passed.
2. A second written reminder if payment is still outstanding.
3. Direct follow-up contact by phone or another agreed channel.
4. An offer to meet the school to discuss the outstanding fees.
5. Where you cannot pay in full immediately, consideration of a reasonable written payment plan setting out the amount, the dates, and what happens if it is not followed.
6. A final written notice before any consequence is applied.

That final notice must state the amount outstanding, what the school has already done, the proposed next step, the date it may take effect, and your option to contact the school or refer the matter to KHDA. A notice missing those elements has not met the requirement.

The limits on what can then happen

• Only one formal consequence may be applied, and it must already be stated in your Parent-School Contract. The options are withholding the Withdrawal or Transfer Certificate, not re-registering your child for the following year, or temporary suspension from learning.
• Refusing to re-register requires KHDA approval. A school cannot simply decide it.
• Suspension is a last resort and capped at three consecutive school days per term, excluding examination days, and only after final written notice.
• If a payment plan is agreed and you are keeping to it, no consequence may be applied at all, suspension included. Getting a plan in writing is the strongest protective step available to you.
• Throughout the process your child must continue to access learning as normal, and must not be refused entry, removed from class, isolated, embarrassed or treated differently.
• All fee communication must go to the parent or guardian only. Not through the student, not in front of the student or the class.

The genuine leverage a school holds is the Transfer Certificate. It may be withheld until approved fees are paid in full, and without it your child cannot register at another private school anywhere in the UAE, not just in Dubai. Reports and certificates may also be withheld where fees are unpaid at the end of a term or year, again unless an agreed payment plan is being followed.

Escalating a dispute to KHDA

KHDA will not take a case that has not been through the school first. The policy requires that all internal resolution steps are completed and documented before a matter is referred. Once the school’s internal process is exhausted, either side may refer it, and KHDA may ask both parties for documentary evidence.

Practically, that means keeping everything in writing from the first conversation. Email rather than phone, ask for decisions in writing, and keep the school’s reminders and notices. If you reach KHDA with a folder and the school reaches it with a recollection, that asymmetry works in your favour.

One thing not to expect: fees stay payable while a complaint is being reviewed. Withholding payment to force the issue weakens your position rather than strengthening it. The same applies to distance learning, where schools delivering an approved programme are not required to discount tuition, and choosing not to take part is not grounds for non-payment.

When the school cannot deliver at all

If a school suspends services for reasons within its own control, tuition remains payable for any period it did deliver, including by approved distance learning, and it must compensate you for the period it did not, by fee credit, replacement sessions or a prorated refund, agreed in writing.

Under a government-enforced closure the principle is the same: fees are payable for each day the service was available and delivered, and from the day the school cannot deliver, they are not. The remedy is a credit note, a transfer of the credit to a sibling at the same school, or a full refund. Which of the three is used has to be agreed in writing, not simply chosen by the school.