American International School of Jeddah

The short version

The short version

The American International School of Jeddah (AISJ) is a non-profit, co-educational Pre-K to Grade 12 school founded in 1952 as the Parents Cooperative School — making it Jeddah’s oldest international school.

It teaches an American curriculum built on the US State Department’s AERO standards, offers Advanced Placement courses, and added the IB Diploma Programme in 2022 after IBO authorisation in 2021.↗↗

For an expat family, the practical summary is this: AISJ is the default American-pathway answer in Jeddah, on the city’s newest anchor-school campus, with the most transparent fee page in this series.

Published tuition runs from SAR 35,000 (Pre-K) to SAR 91,400 (Grades 11–12) excluding VAT — SAR 105,110 with the 15% VAT non-Saudi families pay — and the one-time cost structure is gentler than peers: no application fee, no capital fee, and a registration fee the school lists at SAR 10,000.↗

What the school is

Seventy years of American Jeddah — including the Saudia Airlines era

The school’s history tracks the city’s expat economy.

Founded in a villa in 1952 by expatriate parents, it moved to a building on the TWA compound in 1957 and to an Al-Ruwais campus near the American consulate in 1967, became North Campus School in 1976, and then — the chapter that surprises newcomers — spent 1985 to 2004 as the Saudi Arabian International School (SAIS), sponsored by Saudia, the national airline, before taking its current name in 2004 and operating as an independent not-for-profit from 2005.↗↗

In January 2019 the school moved to a purpose-built campus in the Mohammadiyah District: roughly 50,000 square metres with capacity for about 1,750 students, a 650-seat auditorium, two gymnasiums, a shaded pool, and a library holding more than 20,000 print volumes.

Aggregators put current enrolment around 1,240 students of roughly 65 nationalities — below capacity, which historically has meant reasonable availability outside peak entry grades.↗↗

Academics in practice

AERO standards, AP courses, and the IB Diploma on top

AISJ describes its programme as an authentic, standards-based American education built on AERO — the US State Department’s framework for overseas schools — leading to an American high school diploma, with AP courses charged per course (SAR 600) and the IB Diploma Programme added in 2022 as the premium upper-school pathway.

The school is accredited by the Middle States Association (MSA-CESS) and licensed by the Saudi MoE; we were unable to re-verify the MSA listing on the school’s own pages this pass, so treat the accreditation claim as directory-grade and confirm on the MSA-CESS website if it is load-bearing for you.↗↗↗

One genuinely distinctive line in the fee schedule deserves attention: AISJ publishes priced bands for additional services — Learning Support at SAR 12,000 (mild), 18,000 (moderate) and 60,000 (high-moderate needs) per year; ELL at SAR 6,900–10,500; speech-language and occupational therapy at SAR 7,826–39,130 depending on weekly sessions; even a Talented & Gifted service at SAR 10,000; and one-to-one assistants charged at cost.

That transparency is rare and useful — but note the top SEN band approaches the cost of a second tuition, and enrolment can be made contingent on accepting (and paying for) a recommended service.↗

Admissions and cost

Admissions, fees and the small print that bites

Published tuition excluding VAT is SAR 35,000 (Pre-K 2/3/4), 53,800 (Kindergarten), 62,609 (Grades 1–5), 77,800 (Grades 6–8), 83,000 (Grades 9–10) and 91,400 (Grades 11–12); adding 15% VAT for non-Saudi families takes the top band to SAR 105,110. Saudi nationals are VAT-exempt.

Tuition includes textbooks, classroom assessments and PSAT. One-time fees on the school’s own page are unusually light: application SAR 0, assessment SAR 500, registration SAR 10,000 (waived for Pre-K entry, postponed to Kindergarten), capital fee SAR 0.

Note the conflict: 2026/27 third-party listings show the registration fee at SAR 14,500 — get the current figure in writing.↗↗

Two clauses to read before signing. First, the semester rule: AISJ bills tuition by semester, and attendance of one week in a semester makes the family liable for that semester’s full tuition — refunds exist only for wholly unattended semesters, which is unforgiving for families on short-notice repostings.

Second, the seat deposit: returning families pay SAR 4,000 (credited to tuition, refundable before May 1st), and seats with unpaid tuition are held only until the third day of the new school year.

Sibling discounts are 5% (second child), 10% (third) and 15% (fourth and above), and a 2.5% monthly late fee applies to unpaid balances.↗

The family experience

The compound-corridor school

Mohammadiyah places AISJ in north Jeddah’s expat corridor — the same district cluster as the British International School of Jeddah — close to the compounds where much of the city’s Western community lives.

The standard Jeddah pattern applies: families choose housing within school-run range, many hire drivers, and compound shuttles fill the gaps; city guides put school transport at roughly SAR 4,000–8,000 per child per year on top of tuition.↗

Parent-sentiment data is thin — as it is across Saudi Arabia — and we did not find a substantial English-language forum record for AISJ in this pass, so we make no reputation claims beyond the structural facts.

What the documents do show is a school with institutional continuity few regional peers can match: seventy-plus years, a single purpose-built campus, a non-profit board, and a fee page transparent enough to budget from without a phone call.↗

Take these to the school

Questions that move beyond the tour script