Schools & Education in Bogotá

Good to Know

• Tuition at Bogotá's international/bilingual schools is set in Colombian pesos and regulated annually by the Ministry of Education, but many schools partially index fees to USD — ask specifically how currency risk is handled if you're paid in a foreign currency.
• Several top schools (especially Colegio Anglo Colombiano) can have real waiting lists; if targeting one of the most established schools, it's worth applying 3–6 months ahead of the intake you want.
• Colombia's academic year for most private/national-curriculum schools runs on 'Calendar A' (roughly February to November), but many IB and Cambridge-curriculum international schools run 'Calendar B' (August/September to June) — confirm which calendar a school follows before assuming compatibility with a school in your home country.
• Beyond published tuition, budget for one-time or annual enrollment/registration fees, uniforms, school supplies, and optional bus transport — these can meaningfully add to the headline tuition figure.
• Not all schools publish their fee schedules online (e.g., Colegio Gran Bretaña); you'll often need to contact admissions directly for a current quote.
• Start the international-school application process 6–10 months before your intended start date — CNG and Anglo Colombiano in particular can carry waitlists of several months to almost a year.
• Confirm which academic calendar a school uses before committing: most accredited international schools use Calendario B (roughly August–June), which avoids a disrupted semester for families arriving from the Northern Hemisphere.
• Bring apostilled or officially translated transcripts and immunization records with you — schools frequently ask for these upfront and delays here are a common cause of admissions slowdowns.
• Homeschooling is not illegal in Colombia, but it's also not formally regulated — there's no registration requirement, but there's also no official 'homeschool status,' so most families validate grades periodically through Ministry of Education-recognized exams rather than relying on informal certificates from private homeschool 'programs,' some of which have been flagged for issuing certificates without real official standing.
• If you're moving to Bogotá specifically to homeschool, the EnFamilia-affiliated Bogotá meetup group (active at Biblioteca Julio Mario Santodomingo) is a real, documented starting point for finding other homeschooling families locally, rather than assuming a co-op exists just because one might in your home country.