Guatemala’s official 2026 school calendar was published by MINEDUC in the Diario de Centro América on 22 December 2025, in two separate agreements: 4817-2025 for the public sector and 4818-2025 for private, cooperative and municipal schools. The two calendars do not run on the same dates — and neither of them is the calendar most international schools in Guatemala actually use. That is a third category, with its own Ministerial Agreement. All three are below.
Quick summary: Public schools run 27 January – 30 October 2026; private, cooperative and municipal schools run 12 January – 15 October; the mid-year break is 24–30 June in both. MINEDUC requires 180 effective class days. Schools authorised to work on a plan internacional are covered by a separate agreement, and most of them run August–June, on the US/northern calendar. Spanish version: Calendario escolar 2026 MINEDUC.
Applies to: parents planning the 2026 school year, families relocating to Guatemala mid-year, returning diaspora deciding when to arrive, and anyone lining a Guatemalan school year up against a US, Canadian or UK one.
Still ahead in 2026: 41 days to the last day of private-school daily-plan classes (15 October) · 56 days to the last day of public-school classes (30 October) · 70 days to the last day of activities in public schools (13 November).
The key dates: public vs private
| Event | Public sector | Private / cooperative / municipal |
|---|---|---|
| Opening of the teaching period | 27 January | 2 January |
| Classes begin (daily plan) | 27 January (inauguration 2 Feb) | 12 January |
| Classes begin (weekend plan) | 31 Jan – 1 Feb | 17–18 January |
| Holy Week break | 30 March – 5 April | 30 March – 5 April |
| Close of first semester (semester daily plan) | 9–14 June | 19 June |
| Mid-year break | 24–30 June | 24–30 June |
| Second semester begins (daily plan) | 6 July | 8 July |
| Last day of classes (annual daily plan) | 30 October | 15 October |
| Last day of classes (annual weekend plan) | 25 October | 17–18 October |
| End-of-cycle make-up assessments | 7–11 November | 3–8 November |
| Last day of activities / close of cycle | 13 November | 30 October |
| Close of semester daily plan | 30 November | 30 November |
The offset that catches people out: private schools start two weeks earlier and finish two weeks earlier. A public-school family and a private-school family on the same street are on different schedules at both ends of the year.
School holidays (asuetos) 2026
| Holiday | Date |
|---|---|
| Holy Week | 30 March – 5 April |
| International Workers’ Day | 1 May |
| MINEDUC anniversary (public sector) | 18 July |
| Independence Day | 15 September |
| Anniversary of the 1944 Revolution | 20 October |
| All Saints’ Day | 1 November |
Independence-week celebrations run as integrated learning activities from 10 to 14 September; Children’s Day is celebrated on 1 October. Teacher’s Day (25 June) is not a national holiday, but most schools hold ceremonies and a shortened day. For national holidays beyond the school calendar, see the Guatemala holidays hub.
Dates for parents (public sector)
| Event | Date |
|---|---|
| First parents’ meeting | 16–20 March |
| Second parents’ meeting | 6–10 July |
| Third parents’ meeting | 5–9 October |
| Last day of ordinary enrolment (SIRE) | 6 April |
| SIRE enrolment for the 2027 cycle (annual plan) | from 8 November |
| Make-up assessments (start of cycle) | 11–15 February |
| Make-up assessments (first semester) | 8–12 July |
If you are enrolling for the first time, the process and document list are on the MINEDUC public school enrolment guide.
Dates for graduating students (graduandos) 2026
| Event | Date |
|---|---|
| Registration for the Evaluación de Graduandos | 23 February – 7 April |
| Sitting of the Evaluación de Graduandos | 1 June – 31 August |
| Late (extemporánea) evaluation — registration | 1–18 September |
| Late evaluation — sitting | 5–16 October |
| Tercero Básico evaluation | 1 Sep – 30 Oct (registration: 1 Jun – 30 Jul) |
| Supervised practicum for graduating students | from 1 October |
Which schools run on the US (August–June) calendar?
This is the question that decides when a relocating family should land, and the answer is not the one most people would guess.
MINEDUC does not treat an international school year as something a school improvises. It is a formal authorisation category: “Centros Educativos Privados autorizados para trabajar con plan internacional”. That category receives its own Ministerial Agreement every year, separate from the public agreement (4817-2025) and the private/cooperative/municipal agreement (4818-2025) above.
For the current cycle that agreement is Acuerdo Ministerial No. 3149-2026, titled “Establecer el calendario escolar 2026-2027 para Centros Educativos Privados autorizados para trabajar con plan internacional”, published in the Diario de Centro América on 15 July 2026 and in force from 16 July 2026. Note the scope in the title: a 2026-2027 year, not a 2026 one.
Two caveats, stated plainly, because they change how much weight to put on this:
- We have verified the agreement’s title and publication date, and nothing more. Its full text sits behind a paywall on the legal database where we located it, so we have not read the dates inside it. Guatemalan press (La Hora, 17 July 2026) reported that plan-internacional classes would begin on Monday 3 August 2026, with a year-end break from 21 December 2026 to 3 January 2027, and the Evaluación de Graduandos registered 7–15 April 2027 and sat 20–30 April 2027. Those are a press report, not MINEDUC’s published text — we have not confirmed them against the agreement.
- MINEDUC does not publish this calendar on its own calendar page. Both edu.mineduc.gob.gt’s calendar page and the mineduc.gob.gt calendar page list only AM 4817-2025 and AM 4818-2025 (both checked 3 September 2026). The Ministry does host the previous cycle’s plan-internacional agreement, AM 3833-2024 — but that PDF is a scanned image with no text layer, so it cannot be searched or machine-read.
That asymmetry is exactly why the practical answer has to come from the schools themselves.
Per-school calendar, from each school’s own published material
Every row below comes from the school’s own site, a government fact sheet, or an accrediting body’s directory — all checked 3 September 2026.
| School | Municipio | Calendar | Source (read 2026-09-03) |
|---|---|---|---|
| American School of Guatemala (Colegio Americano de Guatemala) | Guatemala City, Zona 15 | August – May | Tuition page: monthly payments due “from August to May of each school year” — https://www.cag.edu.gt/admissions/tuition |
| Colegio Maya | Santa Catarina Pinula | August – June | US State Department fact sheet: “two semesters extending from August to December (Semester 1) and January to June (Semester 2)” — https://www.state.gov/colegio-maya-fact-sheet |
| Colegio Interamericano | Guatemala City, Zona 16 | August – June, four quarters | School’s published “2026-2027 SCHOOL CALENDAR” PDF — https://www.interamericano.edu.gt/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/calendario_digital26_27-FINAL.pdf |
| Lycée International Français Jules Verne | Fraijanes | August 2026 – July 2027; rentrée 1 Sep 2026 | Calendar image titled “CALENDRIER SCOLAIRE 2026-2027 (rythme nord)” — https://julesverne.edu.gt/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/CALENDRIER-SCOLAIRE-2026-2027.png |
| Antigua International School | Ciudad Vieja, Sacatepéquez | 2026-2027; New Family Day Saturday 8 Aug 2026 | Welcome page, “SCHOOL CALENDAR 2026 - 2027” — https://antiguais.org/welcome-new-families/ |
| Robert Muller LIFE School | Panajachel, Sololá | 31 Aug 2026 – 11 Jun 2027 | School’s 2026-2027 Calendario Anual page — https://www.lifeschoolguatemala.com/academic-calendar |
| Inter-American School (IAS) | Quetzaltenango | mid-August – May | ACSI directory listing — https://careers.acsi.org/profile/inter-american-school/798793/ |
| AMI International School (AMIIS) | Cobán, Alta Verapaz | August – May | Student & Parent Handbook: “Ten payments are due per year (August to May)” — https://www.amiiscoban.com/_files/ugd/db9680_83073376a4cf468480d1fd97371d04db.pdf |
| Christian Academy of Guatemala | Mixco | August – May | Admissions page: “school year beginning in August and ending in May” — https://www.christacadguate.org/admissions.html |
| Colegio Alemán de Guatemala (Deutsche Schule) | Guatemala City, Zona 11 | January – first week of November | School’s Estructura escolar page (dsguatemala.edu.gt): “iniciando en enero y finalizando la primera semana de noviembre, con cuatro semanas de vacaciones en junio” |
| Instituto Austriaco Guatemalteco | Guatemala City, Zona 16 | January – October | 2026 fee sheet: school transport “se paga 9 meses: de enero a mayo y de julio a octubre” — https://austriaco.edu.gt/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Cuotas-2026-IAG.jpg |
| Colegio Americano del Sur | Santa Lucía Cotzumalguapa, Escuintla | 15 Jan 2026 – 21 Oct 2026 (graduation); mid-year break 22–29 June | School’s published calendar feed — https://cas.edu.gt/2025/subpages/calendar_esp.php |
| Colegio Boston Bilingüe | Ciudad Vieja, Sacatepéquez | January – October | Admissions page (colegiobostonguatemala.com): the 2026 intake was recruited August–November 2025 |
Nine of these thirteen schools start their year in August or September. Four run the Guatemalan year — and the split does not follow nationality. Two of the three schools most people would file as “European”, the German and the Austrian, are on the Guatemalan calendar, while the French lycée explicitly labels its own calendar rythme nord and every US-curriculum school in the list runs August to May or June. A school’s country of origin tells you nothing here. Only its published calendar does.
One note on Colegio Boston Bilingüe: it is a Guatemalan bilingual school, not an international-curriculum one — it claims no US, IB, AP or Cambridge programme anywhere on its site. It is in the table because its calendar is sourced, not as an international-school recommendation.
A second, weaker calendar signal: the IB exam session
Guatemala has six IB World Schools. Their exam session is a usable tell about which calendar they run: a May session fits the northern year, a November session fits the Guatemalan year. This is an inference from the IB’s own register, not a calendar the school published, so treat it as one notch weaker than the table above.
| School | Location (per the IB register) | IB session | Implied calendar |
|---|---|---|---|
| Antigua Montessori School | Ciudad Vieja, Sacatepéquez | May | Northern (Aug–Jun) |
| Centro Escolar “El Roble” | Zona 11, Guatemala City | November | Guatemalan (Jan–Oct) |
| Centro Escolar Campoalegre | Zona 11, Guatemala City | November | Guatemalan (Jan–Oct) |
| Centro Escolar Entrevalles | Km 16.8 carretera a El Salvador | November | Guatemalan (Jan–Oct) |
| Centro Escolar Solalto | Fraijanes | November | Guatemalan (Jan–Oct) |
| Colegio Internacional SEK Guatemala | Fraijanes | November | Guatemalan (Jan–Oct) |
Source: the IB’s own “Find an IB World School” register, filtered to Guatemala, read 3 September 2026 — https://www.ibo.org/programmes/find-an-ib-school/.
What this means if you are relocating
Arriving in June or July is the cleanest window. You land straight into the August–September intake at a northern-calendar school, with the whole year ahead of you. At a January-calendar school the same arrival means walking in just after the 24–30 June mid-year break, with roughly four months left in the cycle.
Arriving in September or October is the worst window for a Guatemalan-calendar school. Public daily-plan classes end 30 October and private ones 15 October — you would enrol for a handful of weeks and then repeat the whole placement conversation in January.
Apply earlier than a US timeline would suggest. January-start schools recruit during the previous calendar year: Colegio Boston Bilingüe’s admissions dates for the 2026 cycle ran August to November 2025. August-start schools front-load the northern summer: Antigua International School held its New Family Day on 8 August 2026, and Robert Muller LIFE School ran its enrolment window from 3 to 28 August 2026.
Mid-year entry can be structurally closed, not merely full. Colegio Alemán is the clearest case: Pre-K entry requires the child to turn 4 by 31 December of the prior year, and the only other way in is Ingreso Lateral, restricted to students who are in third grade of primaria in the year of the test, admitted by a Saturday aptitude exam. A calendar that looks compatible does not guarantee an open door.
Ask each school one specific question: is this school authorised by MINEDUC to work with a plan internacional? That is the MINEDUC category whose calendar is set by its own acuerdo each year (AM 3149-2026 for 2026-2027, a text we have not been able to read), and it is a yes/no the school can answer. A school that states it is not under MINEDUC’s authority at all (Christian Academy of Guatemala says so on its own site) sets its year outside this category. For the paperwork itself — what MINEDUC requires from a child arriving from abroad, and what the school is obliged to do while it is pending — see enrolling a foreign child in a Guatemalan school and the equiparación de estudios for US studies.
What to know
- Minimum 180 class days. Article 58 of the Regulation of the National Education Law requires it, and the Departmental Directorates of Education must verify compliance in both sectors.
- Private schools have margin. Several dates in Agreement 4818-2025 operate “según corresponda al servicio educativo autorizado” — as corresponds to the authorised educational service. Confirm your school’s exact closing dates with the school itself.
- Weekend plan and semester plan have their own calendar. The tables above separate daily plan from weekend plan, and annual from semester. If your school runs a different modality, read the matching row.
- Commemorations must not displace classes. Article 6 of both agreements states that no commemoration should affect the normal development of classes.
How to verify this at MINEDUC
MINEDUC publishes the signed agreements as PDFs on its calendar page. Both official pages carry the same two documents:
- Calendario Escolar — MINEDUC (edu.mineduc.gob.gt) — PDFs of Agreements 4817-2025 and 4818-2025
- Calendario Escolar — MINEDUC (mineduc.gob.gt)
One practical warning: the Diario de Centro América copies of these agreements are scanned images without a text layer. You can read them on screen, but you cannot search them — and neither can an AI assistant summarising them for you. If a date matters, open the PDF page and read it yourself. For anything specific to your own school, especially closing dates in the private sector, the school’s administration is the authority, because the agreement deliberately leaves those dates to the authorised service.
Related
- Spanish version — Calendario escolar 2026 MINEDUC
- MINEDUC public school enrolment — free, requirements and deadlines
- Enrolling a foreign child in a Guatemalan school — what MINEDUC actually requires
- Equiparación de estudios for US studies — recognising grades completed abroad
- Equivalencia de estudios (MINEDUC)
- Returning to Guatemala: school enrolment
- International schools in Guatemala City
- Bilingual schools in Antigua
- Education guides · All trámites
- Birth certificate (RENAP) — an enrolment requirement
- Guatemala holidays 2026 — national holidays, not only school ones
Official source: Calendario Escolar — MINEDUC (PDFs of Agreements 4817-2025 and 4818-2025). Per-school calendars were checked at each school’s own published material on 3 September 2026 — schools change these without notice, so confirm before you book flights.