School Tuition: Increases and Prohibited Collection Practices

This page is a translation of the original Portuguese text, provided for convenience. It deals with Brazilian law. If there is any discrepancy, the Portuguese version prevails. Read the original in Portuguese

Law 9.870/1999 sets out how annual school tuition must be calculated and announced, prohibits schools from withholding documents over a debt, and allows a school to refuse to renew the enrollment of a student whose account is delinquent. Knowing these limits is what separates a legitimate tuition increase from a prohibited collection practice.

School tuition is an annual contract, not a monthly price

The annual or semiannual tuition for preschool, elementary, secondary, and higher education is agreed on when the student enrolls or re-enrolls. The contract is between the school and the student, the student’s parent, or the student’s guardian. Law 9.870/1999 treats this arrangement as a yearly agreement, not as a series of monthly prices the institution can change at will.

Art. 1, § 1 requires that the annual amount be based on the last installment of the tuition lawfully set in the previous year, multiplied by the number of installments in the school term. Under § 5, the result remains in force for one year and is divided into twelve or six equal monthly installments. The school may offer alternative payment plans, as long as they do not exceed that total.

The most useful consequence for the person signing the contract follows from this. Section 6 of the same article declares null and void, with no effect whatsoever, any contract clause that provides for revising or adjusting the installments in less than one year from the date they were set, except in cases expressly provided for by law.

There is also a point that often goes unnoticed at signing. Section 7, added by Law 12.886/2013, nullifies any clause that requires the contracting party to pay an additional fee for, or to supply, any school material for the collective use of students or of the institution when it is needed to deliver the contracted educational service. Those costs must already be built into the calculation of the annual tuition.

Advance notice and the cost worksheet

The increase the law allows is not a number picked at the end of the year. Art. 1, § 3 allows the school to add to the total annual amount a portion proportional to the change in personnel and operating costs, including when that change results from improvements to the teaching and pedagogical process. The condition is written into the text itself: the change must be proven by submitting a cost worksheet.

Section 4 leaves the format of that worksheet to an act of the Executive Branch. In practice, this gives the person signing the contract an objective request to make: ask the school to show which expenses went up and by how much, rather than accepting a bare announcement that tuition will rise by a given percentage.

Alongside the calculation, Art. 2 imposes a deadline and a publicity requirement. The school must post, in a place easily accessible to the public, the text of the proposed contract, the amount determined under Art. 1, and the number of seats per classroom. This must be done at least forty-five days before the final enrollment date, in line with the institution’s calendar and schedule.

This requirement dovetails with Brazil’s Consumer Protection Code (CDC). Art. 46 of the CDC provides that consumer contracts do not bind the consumer if the consumer was not given the chance to review their contents in advance, or if they are drafted in a way that makes their meaning and scope hard to understand. Art. 6, III guarantees adequate and clear information about the price and characteristics of the service.

An increase with no cost worksheet and no notice within the legal deadline is no longer a debate over a percentage. It becomes a debate over validity.

If you signed the contract without the proposal having been posted within the legal deadline, you can demand to see the documents that support the amount, through administrative channels or in court, before accepting the charge as final. Under Art. 47 of the CDC, any doubt about what a clause means is resolved in the way most favorable to the consumer.

Withholding documents and academic penalties are prohibited

Art. 6 of Law 9.870/1999 is the provision families behind on payments invoke most often, and the one schools most often violate in practice. It prohibits suspending exams, withholding school records, and imposing any other academic penalty because of nonpayment.

The prohibition does not depend on the size of the debt or on how late the payment is. Barring a student from taking an assessment, separating the student from the class, blocking access to the grades portal, or making delivery of a report card conditional on payment are exactly the kind of academic penalty the law rules out.

Section 2 of Art. 6 completes the picture. Elementary, secondary, and higher education institutions must issue their students’ transfer documents at any time, regardless of whether the student is current on payments or whether the school has begun legal proceedings to collect. A transcript and a transfer statement, therefore, cannot serve as collateral for a debt.

What remains for the school is the legitimate route: collecting the debt. Art. 42 of the CDC prohibits exposing a consumer who owes a debt to ridicule or subjecting the consumer to any kind of embarrassment or threat. Collecting in front of classmates, reading a notice aloud in class, or handing a message to the student personally all amount to embarrassment. They create separate liability on top of the violation of the tuition law.

Refusing to renew a delinquent student’s enrollment is lawful

The law does not turn late payment into an acquired right to a seat. Art. 5 guarantees students who are already enrolled the right to renew their enrollment, subject to the institution’s school calendar, the school’s rules, or a contract clause. It expressly carves out students who are behind on payments.

This distinction deserves attention because it is the line between prohibited and permitted conduct. During the school term already contracted, nonpayment does not justify an academic penalty or the withholding of any document. Once that cycle ends, the institution may refuse to renew the contract for the following term.

Section 1 of Art. 6 reinforces this reasoning by providing that a student may be dismissed for nonpayment only at the end of the school year or, in higher education, at the end of the semester when the institution uses a semester-based system.

For basic education, the law creates an additional safety net. Section 3 guarantees enrollment in public elementary and secondary schools for students whose contracts were suspended because of nonpayment.

If the student or the student’s guardians do not promptly enroll the student in another school of their choice, § 4 makes the state and municipal Education Departments responsible for arranging enrollment in the public school system, in the course and grade matching those taken at the original school, so that studies continue within the same school term.

What you can demand

Put into concrete steps, the options available to someone paying tuition are quite objective and do not require any argument over what percentage is fair.

• A complete copy of the proposed contract and the calculated amount, with proof that they were posted at least forty-five days before the final enrollment date.
• The cost worksheet that justifies the personnel and operating cost change built into the new annual amount.
• Recognition that any increase applied less than one year after the previous amount was set is null and void.
• A refund of anything charged for school materials for collective use that was billed outside the annual tuition.
• Immediate issuance of the transcript and the transfer document, even if installments remain unpaid.
• An end to any academic measure used as a tool for collecting the debt.

The legal basis for these requests is found in the CDC itself. Art. 39, XIII, added by Law 9.870/1999, classifies as an abusive practice the application of a formula or index of adjustment different from the one set by law or by contract.

Art. 51 of the CDC, in turn, declares null and void by operation of law, among others, clauses that impose unfair obligations or place the consumer at an excessive disadvantage (item IV), clauses that allow the supplier to change the price unilaterally (item X), and clauses that authorize the supplier to unilaterally change the content or quality of the contract after it has been signed (item XIII).

The administrative route tends to produce faster results. Art. 4 of Law 9.870/1999 authorizes the federal consumer protection agency to request, under the CDC, documentary proof regarding any contract clause. The sole paragraph of the same article allows the agency to obtain a written commitment from the school when the documentation submitted does not match the legal requirements.

Collective action has its own path. Under Art. 7, associations of students, of students’ parents, and of guardians have standing to bring the actions provided for in the CDC, as long as they are supported by at least twenty percent of the school’s parents or, in higher education, of its students. An individual complaint remains available and does not depend on that percentage.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can the school raise tuition in the middle of the school year?

As a rule, no. Art. 1, § 6 of Law 9.870/1999 declares null and void any clause that revises or adjusts the installment amount in less than one year from the date it was set, unless the change is expressly provided for by law. The amount determined for the term is valid for one year and is divided into equal monthly installments.

Can the institution hold back the transcript until the debt is paid?

No. Art. 6 prohibits withholding school documents because of nonpayment, and § 2 requires elementary, secondary, and higher education institutions to issue transfer documents at any time, regardless of whether the student is current on payments or whether a court collection action is pending.

Does a student who owes money lose their seat right away?

Not during the term already contracted. A student may be dismissed for nonpayment only at the end of the school year or, in higher education, at the end of the semester where a semester system is used. The institution may, however, refuse to renew the delinquent student’s enrollment for the following term, because Art. 5 carves out that situation when it guarantees the right to renewal.

As informações deste artigo são de caráter informativo e não substituem consulta jurídica individualizada. Cada caso possui particularidades que exigem análise específica.