School in Mexico: free and compulsory up to and including upper secondary, with a school year that starts at the end of August

Yes, your children can go to public school, and it is free: the constitution calls state education "universal, inclusive, public, free and secular", and the education law forbids a school from making enrolment, access, an exam or a diploma depend on a contribution. It is compulsory too, from preschool up to and including media superior, and the duty lies with the parents. The school year starts at the end of August. The trap is not in the law but in the language: public school is in Spanish, and for what your child has already done in the Netherlands there is one procedure, the revalidación, better arranged before the first school day than after.

Which levels are there, and which are compulsory?

Article 3 of the constitution and article 37 of the education law divide the system like this:

Level	What it is	Compulsory?
Inicial	childcare and early development, before preschool	no, a right of the child
Preescolar	preschool	yes
Primaria	primary school	yes
Secundaria	lower secondary	yes
Media superior	upper secondary, the preparatoria or bachillerato	yes
Superior	higher education	no; the state must offer it

Inicial, preescolar, primaria and secundaria together form the educación básica. Article 6 of the education law says that "all inhabitants of the country" must attend preescolar, primaria, secundaria and media superior, and places on parents the duty to send their children under eighteen to school. That applies to your children too, from the day you live there.

What does public school cost?

Nothing, and the law is sharper about it than practice. Article 7 of the education law forbids "any consideration that hinders or conditions the service", and says in so many words that enrolment, access to the building, exams and the issue of documents may not be made dependent on a payment. Voluntary contributions from parents do exist, but are under the same article "in no case" a consideration for the education. If a school asks for a compulsory cuota at enrolment, the law is on your side.

Uniforms, materials and extracurricular activities may under the law not be a condition for the education itself either. What a private school charges is a matter of the contract you sign with that school.

When does the school year start?

The SEP sets one calendar each year for all public and recognised private schools of preescolar, primaria and secundaria. For 2026-2027:

When	What
31 August 2026	first school day
21 December 2026 to 5 January 2027	winter break; lessons resume on 7 January
22 March to 3 April 2027	spring break
9 July 2027	last school day

The year has 185 school days. Whoever arrives in spring therefore steps into a running year that continues to early July; whoever lands in July or August has just enough time to get the papers in order before the first school day.

How do the Dutch school years count?

Through the revalidación de estudios. Article 144 of the education law gives the SEP the power to set national rules for the revalidación of education followed abroad and for the equivalencia between study programmes, and says that a revalidación once granted is "valid throughout the Republic". The states may only revalidate for programmes under their own authority.

The same article instructs the education authorities to simplify the procedures, with "speed, impartiality, flexibility and affordability" as principles, and to promote electronic verification of documents. Which documents you actually bring is published by the SEP itself and varies by level; have the school point you to the right counter at enrolment.

Bring the pupil file from the Netherlands, with the reports of every year. The revalidación is about what your child has demonstrably completed. A Dutch school gives a certificate on deregistration, and you have that document apostilled in the Netherlands before you leave; in Mexico that can no longer be arranged.

Private or public?

A private school may only provide education with an express permit from the state for inicial, preescolar, primaria and secundaria, and with a recognition (reconocimiento de validez oficial) for the levels above, says article 146. So ask a private school for that permit or recognition; without it your child's diploma is worth nothing in Mexico. Bilingual and international schools exist in the big cities and on the coast; what they cost belongs in the cost indication for Mexico, not in this article.

What deliberately isn't here: the age limits per class and the exact enrolment documents. Those are in the SEP's school-control norms, which were not reachable at the time of writing; ask the school for them.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 3 of 5 of the journey, step 3.5: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Mexico or go straight to step 3.5 in the open plan.