This study investigates the impact of enclosed courtyards on alleviating outdoor thermal stress in public school sites in hot-arid climate zones. A digital workflow is used to gauge the contribution of enclosed courtyards from public school prototypes designed by the Egyptian Government to outdoor thermal comfort (OTC) conditions in the cities of Alexandria, Cairo, and Asyut, respectively situated in the North coast, Delta and Cairo, and Southern Upper Egypt hot-arid zones. Results show enclosed courtyards benefit hot-arid zones in general, but zone-specific design strategies and regulations could improve OTC even further, particularly in the mid-seasons, if OTC is considered a design parameter.