Portugal · Sintra
The official site is caislisbon.org. The campus is in Linhó, in the municipality of Sintra, not in central Lisbon. English is the classroom language. Portuguese is a core subject. The 2026/27 fee schedule is printed in euros, quarterly or yearly.
Dieses Porträt steht noch auf Englisch. Die anderen Sprachen kommen Schule für Schule.
Curriculum laut Schule:American curriculum (AERO) · American High School Diploma · IB Diploma Programme (optional) · Supplemental AP via Virtual High School Learning
Unterrichtssprachen:English, Portuguese as a core subject (native and foreign-language tracks)
The Carlucci American International School of Lisbon is a not-for-profit American international day school at Rua António dos Reis 95, Linhó 2710-301, in the municipality of Sintra. The governing foundation is Fundação Escola Americana de Lisboa. Income, the fee page says, is reinvested in the programme, the buildings, and the student experience. Use caislisbon.org. If a search result puts you on a fee directory or a different Lisbon American brand, you are in the wrong tab.
The school began in September 1956, when Anthony McKenna opened a small American school — first called St. Columban’s — with nine students in an apartment in Pedrouços, many of them children of American engineers on the Salazar Bridge, now the 25 de Abril. The point was a US education that would still fit when a family went home. A Portuguese Ministry alvará recognised the programme in 1984. The IB Diploma was authorised so that the first exams sat in May 2000. Students in Grades 3–12 moved to the Linhó land in 1998; the youngest joined in 2000–2001. The current campus buildings the Trustees describe as completed in 2011. In 2026 the High School page marked a 70th anniversary concert. Those are the school’s own dates.
At the start of 2025–2026, CAISL enrolled 755 students from 62 nationalities. About one-third hold more than one nationality. The nationality mix the school prints: USA 32%, Portugal 19%, other English-speaking countries 5%, other nationalities 44%. A footnote says the numbers may move during the year. About 70% of core-subject teachers are native English speakers or “program carriers” who studied or taught in American schools. All faculty are fluent in English.
It is the American school the US Department of State’s Office of Overseas Schools supports in Portugal — CAISL says it is the only American school in the country with that designation. A Regional Education Officer visits. The curriculum sits in the AERO network. Accreditation is Middle States Association through July 2029, with a Program of Distinction in Art and Music and an endorsement in Responsible AI in Learning. The Portuguese Ministry has licensed the American programme permanently since 2003.
The Board of Trustees has three members: two appointed by the US Embassy (one Foreign Service officer, one locally based), one appointed by Visteon Portuguesa. Day-to-day running sits with the Director. Nate Chapman holds that chair on the page we fetched.
The useful questions are local. Can this child work in English at the High School gate you need? Will they actually learn Portuguese, or only hear it in the supermarket in Linhó? Can you pay the building fee for five years as well as the tuition? And do you understand that Linhó is a Sintra commute, not a Chiado walk?
CAISL serves school-aged dependents of the local and international communities in the Lisbon area. It is a college-preparatory American campus for families who want English in the classroom, Portuguese as a serious subject, a US diploma at the end, and the option of the IB Diploma in Grades 11 and 12.
It is a day school. There is no boarding house on the pages we opened. If the posting has not found a house on the Sintra–Cascais side, this campus will not absorb the child.
Learning Support is for mild learning difficulties, and only if the child can function in the regular classroom and work toward CAISL’s academic requirements. EAL exists, and then it tightens sharply in High School. More below. If those programmes are full, a grade can still say no.
Linhó is green, residential, and a real drive from central Lisbon. Sintra is palaces and mist; Linhó is the school run. Budget the journey before you budget the building fee.
Early Childhood (EC3, EC4, Kindergarten) and Lower Elementary (Grades 1–2) have dedicated classrooms, in-class bathrooms, and direct playground access. Early Childhood has two homeroom teachers. Grades 3–5 have their own rooms and one primary homeroom teacher. All elementary students see specialists in Art, Music, and PE. The lower-elementary playground has age-appropriate equipment, a small soccer field, and grass.
Middle and High School students move between subject rooms, science labs, and lockers. Atriums are the social hubs — meetings, performances, student-run events. Lunch is outdoor seating or indoor cafeteria space; a snack bar sells meals and snacks. Preschool has its own atrium.
Outdoor sport: a professional-sized soccer field, two multi-purpose fields, three outdoor basketball courts, and track-and-field. Indoor: a gymnasium that can be two basketball courts or three volleyball courts, a smaller gym for younger children, and a fitness room with machines and free weights.
The theatre seats over 400 — drama, musicals, graduation, community movie nights. Choir and orchestra concert every semester. Tri-M hosts weekly open mics. Visual art shows up as murals in the corridors.
The main library holds over 40,000 books in English and Portuguese, plus audiobooks, DVDs, e-books, and research tools. Parents may use it. Elementary has its own library, a weekly library class, cozy reading corners, and a LEGO wall.
Technology: a personal school laptop from Grade 1; shared devices for younger children; robotics, coding, programmable LEGO. The fee page says that laptop, Portuguese and English language support (PAL and EAL), a range of extracurriculars, required instructional books, team-sport uniforms, art supplies, and most musical instruments sit inside tuition.
Ask to see an ordinary Grade 3 classroom and the car park at 8:10, not only the 400-seat theatre. January in Sintra is not the June concert.
CAISL educates from age 3 through Grade 12. The American idea here is a broad programme — academics, arts, athletics — rather than an early specialist track. Learning also leaves campus: regular visits to historical and natural sites around Lisbon.
Early Childhood and Elementary. EC3, EC4, Kindergarten: socialisation, language, early academic skills, two homeroom teachers in the youngest rooms. Grades 1–5: a homeroom teacher plus specialists for Portuguese, PE, arts, and technology.
Middle School, Grades 6–8. Different teachers for each subject, electives, and a wellbeing emphasis the learning pages name without decorating. Students use lockers and move.
High School, Grades 9–12, ages 14–18. A maximum of 60 students per grade; individual classes no more than 20. The Class of 2026 graduated 60 students — the cap as a leaving photograph. Each student has a faculty advisor and works with the Post-Secondary Counselor.
Every graduate receives the American High School Diploma, assessed on a 4.33 GPA scale. In Grades 11–12, students may also take the IB Diploma. The High School page says approximately 80% choose that path. Both diplomas can be held together. The IB is a choice, not an automatic lock.
Virtual High School Learning can add online courses, including 23 AP subjects. Grades and credits land on the CAISL transcript. VHS is meant to complement, not replace, the timetable. CAISL pays when the High School Coordinator and Secondary Principal approve an AP course that is significantly different from what CAISL already teaches, and the student has shown the organisation to handle it. Families pay if the student fails, withdraws after week one (or 25% of the course fee if they withdraw in week one), or is recovering a failed CAISL credit. The Secondary Principal must approve any VHS course.
Grade 9 has a four-day Week Without Walls in central coastal Portugal — the latest published trip included a beach clean-up at Praia de Mira, kayaking, museums in Murtosa, and the São Jacinto dunes. Co-curricular names on the High School page: Model United Nations, National Honor Society, Tri-M, Thespian Troupe, service, athletics, arts.
College offers the school samples from the Class of 2025 run from Boston College and Georgetown to Cambridge, King’s, IST, Católica, Nova, Amsterdam University College, McGill, RWTH Aachen. That is a destination list, not a placement rate. We are not turning it into a ranking.
All classes are taught in English. Portuguese is a core subject, as a native language and as a foreign language. The fee page calls the support PAL and EAL and says both are included in tuition. Ask how many hours, how native and foreign-language tracks are split in Grade 2 versus Grade 8, and what a January arrival is doing by June.
EAL can be small-group instruction, scaffolding, immersion, sheltered classes, and monitoring. The goal, the support page says, is language confidence without removing the child from classroom learning.
High School is a different gate. The support page flags English-proficiency requirements for High School as a panel. Public extracts of the same official material say Grades 11–12 need to be fluent in English or close, demonstrated on CAISL testing; Grade 10 needs a trajectory the Admissions Team and English Language Coordinator believe will be ready for Grade 11 after a year; Grade 9 wants at least an intermediate academic English level, with two years of intensive instruction in mind. We are repeating the official logic, not inventing cut scores. Ask admissions for the current test and the current floor for your grade. Do not assume Elementary EAL continues into Grade 11.
If documents are not in English or Portuguese, the application process (on official pages we could only partly open) asks for a translation into one of those two. Confirm on the live apply flow.
Start at Join us and the fee schedule, then ask Admissions for the current application link. A /admissions/apply address we tried returned 404; the school has been moving pages. Use the live menu, not a copied URL from a blog.
Decisions, on official admissions material, involve Admissions, the Elementary or Secondary Principal, and the Director. The Support Services Coordinator, EAL Coordinator, IB Coordinator, or School Nurse may join. A grade can have seats and still refuse if Learning Support, EAL, nursing, or the IB Diploma programme is full.
To secure a place, the fee page and related official text name three payments: the one-time Registration Fee of €600, the Building Fee of €1,953 (annually for the first five years from Grade 1), and one quarter of annual tuition. Open the live schedule the week you accept.
Bring psycho-educational testing, an IEP, or medical reports if they exist. Learning Support will not invent a plan from a hallway conversation.
Priority categories appear on official admissions extracts (current CAISL students first, then US Government employees, then American or American-international schools, then other English-medium schools, then bilingual or non-Portuguese-able families, then families who could attend a Portuguese-medium school). Confirm the live order. We are not turning a partial extract into a promise.
Download the 2026/2027 fee schedule in English or Portuguese. Payment can be quarterly or yearly.
One-time at first enrolment
| Fee | 2026/27 |
|---|---|
| Registration | €600 |
Building fee — payable annually for the first five years a student attends, beginning in Grade 1
| Fee | 2026/27 |
|---|---|
| Building | €1,953 |
Tuition
| Grade | Quarterly | Annual |
|---|---|---|
| Early Childhood–Kindergarten | €3,032 | €12,128 |
| Grades 1–2 | €3,515 | €14,060 |
| Grades 3–5 | €3,908 | €15,632 |
| Grades 6–8 | €4,439 | €17,756 |
| Grades 9–12 | €5,883 | €23,532 |
Optional extras
| Service | Quarterly | Annual |
|---|---|---|
| Lunch, Early Childhood and Kindergarten | included | included |
| Lunch, Grades 1–12 | €303 | €1,212 |
| Transport, one way | €454 | €1,816 |
| Transport, round trip | €908 | €3,632 |
After-hours care, Grades 1–5 (optional; choose the number of days)
| Days per week | Quarterly | Annual |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | €85 | €340 |
| 2 | €156 | €624 |
| 3 | €217 | €868 |
| 4 | €264 | €1,056 |
| 5 | €300 | €1,200 |
An application fee is named on some official admissions URLs we could not fully retrieve. If the live apply page charges one, pay what that page prints. We are not inventing a figure we did not hold in a successful fetch.
A first-year Grade 6 is not “about €18,000.” It is registration + building + tuition — €20,309 before lunch, the bus, or after-hours care. A first-year Grade 1 is €16,613 on the same lines. Early Childhood does not take the building fee on the table we fetched (building begins at Grade 1). Do the sum again on the PDF the week you sign.
Learning Support: small-group instruction, progress monitoring, formal accommodations, executive-functioning support, literacy support — for mild difficulties, inside the regular classroom. If parents provide a psycho-educational assessment or medical documentation, CAISL writes an Educational and/or Health Plan, reviewed annually. Updated psycho-educational evaluations are required every three years.
Enrichment and Extension deepens work rather than racing through content. Entry is through admissions identification or the Student Support Guidebook criteria, reviewed at the end of each cycle.
Counseling sits in the same Student Support Services umbrella as Learning Support, Enrichment, and EAL.
The support page asks, as a heading, whether there is an additional cost for support. The fee page we fetched includes PAL and EAL in tuition and does not print a separate Learning Support tariff. Ask finance, in writing, what your plan would cost. Do not assume “included” covers a 1:1 aide the school has not offered.
Ask where a January arrival sits at lunch in week one. Ask how Portuguese native and foreign-language tracks are grouped in the grade you need. Ask whether High School English would be a test you can fail. Ask how full Learning Support and EAL are this semester. Ask how many Grade 11s are on the full IB Diploma — the school says about 80%. Ask what the 4.33 GPA diploma does for a Portuguese public university if you might stay. Ask who appointed the Board this year, and whether a US-government posting changes the queue. Ask to see Grade 5 and Grade 9, not only the theatre. Ask how long the Linhó run is from your address at 7:50, not at noon.
We are not ranking CAISL among Lisbon-area internationals. We are not guessing a waitlist. We are not inventing an application-fee figure we could not retrieve. We are not treating a 2025 destination list as your child’s offer. We are not inventing a 2027/28 fee.
Read the current fee schedule and write from Join us before you sign a rental in Cascais because the map looks close. This is a map. The school still has to be the right Tuesday.
Offizielle Seiten und Dokumente, die wir gelesen haben. Wenn eine Zahl für Budget oder Bewerbung zählt, öffnet den Link und prüft, ob er noch gilt.
Freundliche Orientierung, kein Antrag. Termine, Gebühren und Programme ändern sich. Alles bei der Schule prüfen.
Lisbon’s internationals sit on the western line as often as in the city. Five climates share a capital and almost no Monday. Ask which paper the child will hold, and how much Portuguese the lanche still speaks.
16 minDie Buchstaben auf dem Abschlusszeugnis zählen. Sie sind nicht das ganze Kind. So unterscheidet ihr sie ohne Kopfschmerz — und ohne so zu tun, als bliebe jede Tür offen.
16 minIhr braucht keinen perfekten Algorithmus. Nur ein paar wahre Dinge über euer Kind, eine langweilige Liste am Kühlschrank — und den Mut, einen schönen Campus zu ignorieren, der nicht passt.
15 minDas Schulgeld ist die Zahl auf der Startseite. Das PDF ist die Zahl, die im März kommt. Hier steht, wie ihr die zweite lest, ohne einen Euro, eine Krone oder eine Frist zu erfinden.