Schooling and childcare in Mexico City

How the sector is structured

Public schools are free, taught in Spanish and administered under the national education authority. Private schools are described as incorporadas when they are authorised to teach the official curriculum, and most of them are bilingual to some degree. Full international schools — British, American, French, German and Japanese curricula are all represented in the city — are a separate and much more expensive tier, often with an IB pathway at the top end.

• The school year runs from August to early July, with a long summer break.
• Fees are charged as a monthly colegiatura across ten or eleven months, plus an annual inscripción.
• Uniforms, books, transport and a school-supplies list are extra and add up.

Getting a foreign school record recognised

Transferring a child into the Mexican system with schooling completed abroad generally requires revalidación — official recognition of the previous studies — handled through the education authority. It asks for apostilled and translated transcripts, and it takes time. International schools operating their own curriculum sidestep much of this, which is one reason families in transit choose them.

• Get transcripts apostilled in the previous country before you leave; doing it afterwards is far harder.
• Official Spanish translations are normally required.
• Start the process before the school year, not in the week term begins.

Choosing on geography

The international schools sit largely in the west and south — Santa Fe, Lomas, Bosques, Coyoacán and the southern edge — and the traffic between them and the central colonias is the daily reality that decides how tolerable a school run is. Many schools run bus routes, which is how most families solve it. Look at the route and the departure time before signing anything, because a nominally short distance can be a very long morning.