Overview
- The Secretaría de Educación Pública published Acuerdo número 09/09/26 in the Diario Oficial de la Federación and the rule will take effect on November 3, 2026.
- Students in educación básica (preschool, primary and secondary) will be banned from using personal cellphones during the full school day except for planned classroom activities, emergencies, health needs, disability access or inclusion.
- The SEP issued three separate decálogos that set different expectations by level, with media superior schools required to build community rules on use and storage and higher education encouraged to promote responsible use while respecting institutional autonomy.
- Schools must agree with teachers and families how devices will be stored during the day—examples include keeping phones in backpacks or group boxes—and federal guidance calls for 30 business days of information assemblies in October while states have up to 180 natural days to issue or align local rules.
- The national move follows a consultation with more than 565,000 education professionals and draws on international comparisons and PISA/UNESCO findings to target attention, coexistence and digital harms while prompting questions about family access to students in emergencies and how local systems will enforce the policy.