Dominican International School Kaohsiung is the oldest of the city's international schools, begun in 1954 by the Dominican Sisters to teach the children of American families, and it sits on the foreign-passport gate: a valid foreign passport is required, so a family holding only Taiwanese nationality cannot enroll. It is a Catholic school, but not a closed one. It admits students of any faith, and asks for a baptismal certificate only from a family that is already Roman Catholic, so the Catholic character shapes the school without gating who may attend.
The honest thing to say about DISK is that it publishes less about itself than the other schools in this guide. It states its eligibility rule and its admissions steps clearly, but it does not put a fee schedule, a list of its Advanced Placement subjects, its enrollment, or its university results on its own website, and its pages carry a mix of current and older information, including two different accounts of how far up the grades it goes. This guide reports what the school itself states, marks plainly what it does not, and points a family to the Registrar for the rest, rather than filling the gaps with the estimates that circulate elsewhere. A thinner, honest picture is more useful to a family than a fuller invented one.
The families who ask us about DISK are usually foreign-passport families in Kaohsiung drawn to a small, values-led Catholic school with a long history in the city, and the questions they bring are often the ones the school's own site leaves open: what the year costs, how far up the grades a child can go, and what the high school offers. Those are fair questions to put to the school directly, and we would encourage a family to do so early rather than rely on a figure found on a directory.
We work with Kaohsiung families remotely from our base in Taipei, the same way we teach families across roughly eight countries, and Kaohsiung is about ninety minutes away by high-speed rail for a family that prefers some sessions in person. What we help with does not depend on the details the school withholds. It is the academic English an American, English-medium school assumes at entry, and the writing and analysis that an American college-preparatory course and its Advanced Placement subjects reward, whatever system a child is arriving from.
The orienting facts, each drawn from the school's own materials and checked in September 2026. Where the school does not publish a fact, this guide says so rather than estimating.
DISK is a Catholic, English-medium foreign school in Gushan District, governed by the Dominican Sisters and administered separately from Dominican International School Taipei, with which it shares only the Dominican heritage. Its own homepage states it holds WASC accreditation, and lists membership of the Council of International Schools, WIDA, and EARCOS. It teaches an American curriculum with Advanced Placement, not the IB. Much of the detail a family looks for, fees, the AP roster, enrollment, and results, is not on its website, and this guide marks each of those plainly below.
Unlike most schools in this guide, DISK does not publish a fee schedule or much of its numeric detail on its own website. The table below states what the school itself provides and marks the rest as not published, with the Registrar as the place to ask. Figures the school does not state are not estimated here, and the amounts that circulate on directory sites are not the school's own and are not carried.
The only fee the school states on its own site is a testing and interview fee of NT$3,000, paid when a family schedules the entrance test and interview. Tuition and all other fees are issued privately on a fees slip after the interview. A family should request the current schedule from the Registrar, at admin@disk.kh.edu.tw or on +886 7 552 3989, and this guide carries no tuition figure the school has not published.
| Grades served | Currently stated as Pre-Kindergarten to Grade 12. An older page on the school's own site describes approval for kindergarten to Grade 9. Confirm the upper span with the school |
|---|---|
| Enrollment | Not published as a current figure. An older page describes around 100 students, across more than 15 nationalities |
| Curriculum | Modified American, English-medium, with Religious Studies and Advanced Placement. Not an IB school |
| Advanced Placement | Offered. The current list of AP subjects is not published by the school. Ask the Registrar |
| Tuition and fees | Not published by the school. Only a testing and interview fee of NT$3,000 is stated. Tuition is issued privately after the interview |
| Accreditation | The school states it holds WASC accreditation, described on its site as full and dated 2025. The term length is not published. Member of the Council of International Schools, WIDA, and EARCOS |
| Matriculation | Not published by the school. No university destinations or results appear on its site |
| Admissions | Open for the 2026 to 2027 year. Documents to the Registrar, then a test and interview. No published deadline or waitlist rule |
| Eligibility | A valid foreign passport required. ROC-only nationals not eligible. Faith not required for admission |
| Boarding | None. A day school |
Where a row reads "not published," the fact does not appear on any page the school publishes. Directory sites carry a tuition figure and an AP count for DISK. Neither is the school's own, and this guide follows the school. All figures checked September 2026.
DISK has the longest history of any school in this guide, and its Catholic, Dominican character runs through everything it says about itself.
The school began in January 1954, when the Dominican Sisters started tutoring the children of American families, many of them US Navy families, in Kaohsiung, and it grew through several names, a kindergarten, then Dominican School, then Assumption School, before taking the name Dominican International School Kaohsiung in 2015, the year of its first middle school graduation. It moved to its present building on Chung Hua 1st Road in Gushan District in 1967, alongside the Our Lady of the Assumption community. It is governed by the Dominican Sisters, a Catholic religious congregation of Spanish origin, and it is a distinct school from Dominican International School Taipei, run by the same congregation but administered separately, so a family should read the two as related in heritage rather than as one institution.
Its mission, in its own words, is to provide students with a caring Catholic environment that lets each learner embrace spiritual, intellectual, and moral values in a global society, and it frames its aims for students around the word STARS, for spiritual, truthful, active, responsible, and studious, under the Dominican motto to praise, to bless, and to preach. For a family, the Catholic and Dominican identity is the defining feature of the school, expressed in religious education and the values it teaches, and it is real and long-rooted, while the school is clear that it educates students regardless of race, color, or creed.
DISK teaches an American, English-medium curriculum leading to Advanced Placement, with Religious Studies part of the program, though it publishes less about the detail than most schools.
The curriculum is a modified American one, taught in English, aligned in the elementary years to American standards and including Religious Studies alongside the academic subjects, and it carries Advanced Placement in the upper grades. It is not an IB school, so a family that specifically wants the International Baccalaureate is looking at the wrong school and should weigh Kaohsiung American School, which runs the IB inside an American-diploma school. The one thing the school does not publish is the detail of its Advanced Placement offering: the current list of AP subjects is not on its website, so a family for whom particular AP subjects matter should ask the school directly which it runs this year, rather than rely on a number from a directory.
Two things are worth confirming with the school before a family relies on them, because the school's own pages are not consistent. The grade span is described in one place as Pre-Kindergarten to Grade 12 and in another, an older statement, as approval to serve kindergarten to Grade 9, so a family planning for high school in particular should confirm the current upper span directly. And the school states it holds full WASC accreditation dated 2025, which is the recognition a family looks for in an American school, though the length of the term is not published. On Chinese, the school teaches Mandarin as a subject rather than as a bilingual stream, and a family whose priority is a bilingual Chinese education would look instead at the open-gate school, I-Shou International School.
The process itself is clearly set out, even where the fees behind it are not. A family submits its documents to the Registrar, the application form, a health record form completed by a physician, a recommendation letter, two recent passport photos, the child's foreign passport with verification, an ARC where available, and academic records in English, and a baptismal certificate only if the child is Roman Catholic. The family then schedules a test and a preliminary interview and pays the testing and interview fee of NT$3,000. After the interview the school issues a placement and registration slip with a student number, and then the final tuition and fees slip and an enrollment slip, and a student may attend classes once the fees are paid. Admission for the 2026 to 2027 year is open.
Two practical notes for a relocating family. The school does not publish a fixed application deadline, a waitlist rule, or a mid-year entry policy on its site, so the timeline is best confirmed with the Registrar directly, and applying early is sensible at a small school where places are limited. And the fee a family will pay is not knowable from the website: only the NT$3,000 testing and interview fee is stated, and the tuition slip comes after the interview, so a family that needs to budget before committing should ask the Registrar for the current schedule at the outset. The English requirement and the detail of the entrance test are not spelled out on the site, which is a further reason to speak to the school early.
Harland is not a school and does not replace DISK. We are a 1-on-1 tutoring academy, and we work with Kaohsiung families remotely from Taipei, in the three places the schooling decision creates real work for a family: getting in, the school years, and university.
A valid foreign passport is required, so as with the city's other foreign schools a family holding only ROC nationality is not eligible. DISK is a Catholic school but does not require the Catholic faith to enroll: a baptismal certificate is asked for only if the applicant is already Roman Catholic. The school asks for an ARC where available and academic records in English.
Advanced Placement, not the IB. DISK follows a modified American curriculum, taught in English and including Religious Studies, with Advanced Placement in the upper grades. The school does not publish its current list of AP subjects on its own website, so a family should ask the school directly for it.
The school does not publish a tuition or fee schedule on its own website. The only fee it states is a testing and interview fee of NT$3,000, paid when a family schedules the entrance test and interview. Tuition is issued privately on a fees slip after the interview, so a family should request the current schedule from the Registrar. This guide carries no fee figure the school has not published, and does not reproduce the estimates that circulate on other sites.
The school currently presents itself as serving Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 12, and it has introduced high school grades in recent years. An older statement on its own site describes approval to serve kindergarten through Grade 9, so the upper span is worth confirming directly with the school before relying on it, especially for a family planning high school.
A family submits the application documents to the Registrar, including a foreign passport, a health record form, a recommendation letter, and English transcripts, then schedules a test and preliminary interview and pays the NT$3,000 fee. A placement and registration slip follows, and the school issues the tuition slip and enrollment slip after that. Admission for the 2026 to 2027 year is open.
Our Student Coordinator speaks with Kaohsiung families regularly, and can help you think through the eligibility gate, the questions the school's own site leaves open, and how to prepare a child for an English-medium school. We work with families remotely from Taipei. We start by listening.