International and bilingual schools in Florianópolis: the guide for relocating families

For a family moving to Florianópolis, choosing a school is, in practice, a choice of neighborhood: the island's international and bilingual schools cluster in a handful of areas, and living near the school often matters as much as the sea view. This guide names only institutions we were able to verify and avoids publishing tuition figures the schools themselves don't disclose.

The island's only IB school

Dual International School (Itacorubi) is the only verified IB World School (International Baccalaureate) in Florianópolis: bilingual by immersion in Portuguese and English, with Spanish from 6th grade, from Infantil to Ensino Médio, and offering the IB Diploma alongside a U.S. high-school diploma and the Brazilian diploma. It sits in the Itacorubi university belt, near the UFSC.

The verified bilingual options

• Escola Internacional de Florianópolis (EIF) — Trindade. Trilingual: Portuguese, English and French. Per its own website, it runs from Infantil to Fundamental II (it doesn't list high school) and shows no IB or Cambridge accreditation.
• Escola Dinâmica — the island's largest bilingual network, with 5 campuses (Centro, Jurerê, Leste/Rio Tavares, Ambiental/Vargem Grande and Primavera), which lets you choose by area. Bilingual Portuguese/English, from Infantil to high school, with a U.S. "Dual Diploma" via the University of Missouri —a university partnership, different from an IB or Cambridge accreditation.
• American School of Florianópolis (AmeS) — English immersion in preschool and bilingual elementary (U.S. and Brazilian curricula), for children roughly 1 to 10 years old, with addresses in Jurerê Internacional and Centro. It's worth confirming its current status directly: one of its registrations shows as deregistered, so verify it's still operating before counting on it.

And on the way: AZ Bilingual School, announced in Santa Mônica, with dual national/international certification via a U.S. partnership (Pluris) and expected to open in 2026 —newly announced, not yet an operating school at the time of writing.

How they cluster (and why it matters for choosing a neighborhood)

The verified schools concentrate in two areas, plus Centro and one campus in the east:

• University belt (UFSC): Trindade (EIF), Itacorubi (Dual) and Santa Mônica (AZ, coming soon).
• Northern strip / expat beaches: Jurerê Internacional (AmeS, Dinâmica Jurerê), Cachoeira do Bom Jesus and Vargem Grande (Dinâmica Ambiental).
• Centro (Dinâmica Centro, AmeS) and the east / Rio Tavares (Dinâmica Leste).

On accreditation, the summary is clear: only Dual carries an authorization from an international body (IB); Dinâmica and AZ offer dual diplomas through a U.S. partnership (Missouri / Pluris), which is a different thing; EIF and AmeS are immersion/bilingual without IB or Cambridge. We couldn't verify any Cambridge school, nor a French lycée, nor a German-curriculum school physically present in Florianópolis.

On tuition

The schools don't publish their fees on their sites, and third-party aggregators show unreliable estimates. That's why we don't put figures here: the right move is to ask each school. The only public reference that came up is a press estimate for AZ (the new one), not an official price list.

The message for an arriving family: first choose the school and the model (IB vs. dual diploma vs. bilingual immersion), and only then the neighborhood —living in the UFSC belt or the northern strip of Jurerê completely changes the daily school routine.

Sources

• Dual International School (own website) and the IBO (IB World School directory).
• Escola Internacional de Florianópolis (EIF), Escola Dinâmica (campuses and the "Dual Diploma" via Missouri), American School of Florianópolis (AmeS) — own websites and reports; AmeS status from public registration.
• AZ Bilingual School (press announcement, opening expected 2026).
• Verification of the absence of a Cambridge/lycée unit in Florianópolis (national networks' websites).