The school year has opened: these are the maximum amounts a school may charge you in 5787 — and what may not be charged at all

Why this matters now

The 5787 school year opened a week ago, on September 1, 2026. Over the coming days and weeks, payment circulars, forms and requests will arrive at home. The amounts are not at the school's discretion — they are approved by the Knesset's Education, Culture and Sport Committee and published in a director-general's circular.

On August 10, 2026 the Ministry of Education published Notice no. 0379, "Parent payments for the 5787 school year." These are the numbers.

The maximum total, by grade

Source: Notice 0379 — parent payments for the 5787 school year, Ministry of Education, 10.8.2026 · verified September 2026.

These amounts do not include "TaLaN" (a supplementary curriculum) or voluntary purchase of services, which are capped separately in the same circular and require each parent's individual signature.

What is compulsory and what is not

The only compulsory payment is personal accident insurance for pupils — ₪69 a year, at every level from kindergarten through grade 12. "Compulsory" here means the parent pays it even if they derive no benefit from the service.

Everything else is an optional-services payment. A parent may decide their child will not consume the service, and then does not pay for it. That includes the culture basket (₪67 in kindergarten up to ₪164 in grade 12), trips, graduation parties, textbook lending (₪280–₪320), the field-studies programme, and the municipal parents' committee and national parents' body (₪1.5 each).

Note one line in the table: class parties — 0 at every level. They may not be charged for.

This year the maximum charge for the culture basket was reduced by 12 shekels per pupil; per the circular, the Ministry of Education will transfer that sum at the end of December 2026 to the local authorities and school owners for every duly budgeted pupil.

The rule most worth knowing: "Afik"

This is the most practical rule in the circular, and it is simple:

> "Money may not be collected from parents before the institutional payments circular has been approved by the inspector or another authorized official in the district through the 'Afik' system."

The Ministry of Education's parents' portal puts it even more directly: "If there is no circular on Afik, it means there is no approval to collect, and therefore you should not pay."

The institutional payments circular must be signed by the school principal and by the chair of the institutional parents' body, and the approved payments table is generated from Afik and attached to it. If you received a payment demand without that table, you have a legitimate question to ask.

Also: collection is permitted only by the educational institution, the local authority, or the school's owner. Collection through an association or a parents' committee is not permitted.

Non-payment for financial reasons — the rule is explicit

The circular states: "Pupils may not be prevented from taking part in activities because of non-payment due to financial difficulty, and solutions for including them must be found through the local authority and the school management."

There is also a dedicated budget for this — Ministry of Education scholarships for pupils whose parents struggle to pay. We covered them in a separate article, with the amounts and the timetable.

Full exemption from optional payments — for whom

The circular states that optional-services payments may not be collected from pupils evacuated by government decision whose return home has not yet been decided, from pupils who have returned from captivity, and from first-degree family members of hostages. The compulsory payment, TaLaN and voluntary purchases are still collected, and the local authority may assist with scholarships up to the parent-payment level approved on Afik.

Donations

The parents' committee may, on its own initiative, ask parents for a donation. The school principal may not solicit donations from parents. Services already included in the compulsory or optional payments may not be requested as a donation, no parent may be compelled to donate, and no service may be withheld from a pupil because a donation was not given.

If something doesn't add up

• Ask to see the approved institutional payments circular and the Afik table attached to it.
• Compare against the amounts in the table above. Nothing above the maximum may be collected.
• Approach the school office, and if needed the district's inspector.
• Parents' service and support line: *\6552** (extension 2, then 2), Sun–Thu 7:30–17:00, Fri 7:30–13:00.

For parents' rights in the education system in depth — our guide.

Sources

• Notice 0379 — parent payments for the 5787 school year, director-general circulars database, published 10.8.2026 — read in full 8.9.2026
• Parent payments — parents' portal, Ministry of Education
• Compulsory Education Law, 1949
• Parents' rights in the education system — Tedros