Overview
- The Secretaría de Educación Pública published Acuerdo número 09/09/26 in the Diario Oficial on September 22, 2026, and set a national start date of November 3, 2026 for restrictions in educación básica.
- Under the rule, students in pre‑school, primary and secondary schools may not use cellphones or personal digital devices during the full school day, including recess, with narrow exceptions for planned lessons, emergencies, health needs, disability and accessibility.
- The SEP released three decalogues with age‑tailored guidance: a strict storage-and-disconnection model for educación básica, consultative school-level rules for media superior, and autonomy-respecting recommendations for educación superior.
- Implementation requires school assemblies to agree how devices will be stored during the day and gives state authorities 180 days after the rule takes effect to issue or harmonize local regulations.
- The measure follows a large teacher consultation of about 565,000 education staff and joins a global shift toward phone limits in schools, with consequences to watch including how states translate the rule into enforcement, parental communications, and classroom logistics for device storage and pedagogical exceptions.