School Enrollment on Mallorca: Deadlines, Zones and Process

School enrollment on Mallorca follows a fixed annual rhythm, and knowing it in advance saves you a lot of uncertainty. Starting with the 2026/27 school year, a single regulation from the Conselleria d'Educació governs the entire process for the first time, from nursery to Bachillerat, and Palma has completed its switch to a single school zone. This post explains when to enroll your child, how the points system for allocating places works, which documents foreign families need, and what happens if you move to the island mid-year. For an overview of the school system itself and the types of schools available, see our guide to kindergarten and school on Mallorca.

One process for every stage

Escolarización is the official enrollment process for a place at public and state co-funded schools (centros concertados) in the Balearics. It sets out the period during which families indicate their preferred schools, the criteria used to allocate places, and how the subsequent registration works.

New since the 2026/27 school year is that a single regulation now covers every stage from age 0 to 18. Previously, nursery, school and Bachillerat each had separate rules with their own procedures. For parents, this mainly means one thing: the criteria and forms are now structured the same way across every stage, and everything runs through the Conselleria's central enrollment portal. You will also find the calendars, zone maps and the online application there.

There are two things worth knowing from the start as a foreign family. First, compulsory schooling in Spain runs from age 6 to 16, with the framework set by the Spanish Ministry of Education. A child of compulsory school age always gets a place, even mid-year. Second, the nursery years (0 to 3) are optional, but places are scarce. For 2026/27 the Conselleria approved around 1,200 new nursery places, yet demand still exceeds supply in many municipalities.

Deadlines: the annual rhythm of enrollment

The process follows the same pattern every spring. For the 2026/27 school year the deadlines looked like this:

• Late March: adscripción, the simplified transfer to the assigned secondary school (2026: March 26 to April 1)
• April: application window for nursery ages 0 to 3 (2026: April 13 to 21)
• May: application window for kindergarten from age 3, primary school, ESO and special education (2026: May 4 to 14)
• June: application window for Bachillerat (2026: June 19 to 25)
• Late June to July: publication of the lists and binding registration (matrícula) at the assigned school

The exact dates shift by a few days each year, but the rhythm stays the same. So if you are planning a move and want your child to start at the beginning of the school year in September, plan around the preceding spring. The application can be submitted online with Cl@ve or a digital certificate, or on paper directly at your first-choice school.

School zones and the single zone (zona única)

Until a few years ago, Palma was divided into several school zones, and living in the right zone earned decisive points toward your preferred school. That is now over: after a transition period with two zones, Palma now forms a single school zone. For the 2026/27 school year, the Conselleria also extended the zona única to most municipalities on Mallorca and Menorca.

For you, this means you can list any school within your municipality as your first choice without losing points over your address. That gives you noticeably more choice than before, especially in Palma with its dense network of public and state-subsidized schools. In practice, most families do get their preferred school: in Palma, over 94 percent of families received a place at their first-choice school in the 2025/26 process, according to the Conselleria.

Location still is not completely irrelevant, though. Proximity between home and school still counts in the points system, just measured against each school's catchment area rather than fixed neighborhood boundaries. Current maps are available on the enrollment portal.

Points system: how schools allocate places

If a school receives more applications than it has places, the baremo, a set of scoring criteria, decides. The main factors in the 2026/27 process: a sibling already at the school is worth 3.5 points, each additional sibling 2 points. Living within the catchment area is worth up to 5.5 points, scaled by how long you have been registered with the town hall. Instead of your home address, you can claim a parent's workplace, but not both at once. On top of that come points for low family income, large families, and other special cases.

The key lever for newcomers is in the detail: residency points depend on your empadronamiento, and part of the score requires that registration to already be one or two years old. So take care of the empadronamiento with your town hall as early as possible, since it is the foundation for nearly every other administrative process anyway. Sibling points are the single strongest factor, which is why families with several children do well to plan school choice around the oldest child first.

Documents, late arrivals and costs

For the application you will generally need: passport or ID of the parents together with their NIE, an identity document for the child, the Libro de Familia or an international birth certificate as proof of custody, the empadronamiento certificate, and, depending on which points you claim, supporting documents such as an employment contract or family record book. Foreign civil documents are usually accepted by the administration in their international format or with a sworn translation. You do not need to have school reports from abroad officially recognized for compulsory school years; the child is placed by age.

Can I enroll my child outside the regular deadlines? Yes. Anyone arriving after the regular process applies through the school authority (Oficina d'Escolarització) or directly with the Conselleria. Children of compulsory school age are assigned a place at a school with available capacity, though their preferred school is not guaranteed.

That leaves the question of cost. Public schools are free, with only costs for materials, trips, and usually the school canteen. Concertado schools are state co-funded and also ask for voluntary parent contributions, the amount of which varies widely by school. Fully private schools, including the island's international and foreign-curriculum schools, cost several thousand euros a year depending on the institution and stage. We cover which type of school fits your family and what daily life there looks like in more detail in our parents' guide to kindergarten and school.

Conclusion

School enrollment on Mallorca is predictable once you know the annual rhythm: adscripción in late March, nursery in April, school in May, Bachillerat in June, registration in summer. The new unified regulation and the zona única have made the process simpler and school choice freer, and with over 94 percent of families in Palma getting their first choice, the odds are good. Sort out your empadronamiento early, keep your documents ready with translations, and do not miss the matrícula. And if you arrive outside the deadlines, the school authority will still assign your child a place mid-year; nobody gets left out.