I hate that no one responded to you I saw your post and was excited, because I am in the same situation as you! Maybe with me posting a response someone who is willing to provide some constructive input will respond.

 

Hi BJ,

Nice to read your message! I did a lot of research, and what I found out is that it's possible to put American non-Spanish speaking kids/teens in school in Mexico, but not super easy. Here are the drawbacks I read about:

- The International schools can be quite expensive, especially in Cancun/Cozumel which seems to attract wealthy Americans.

- The Mexican kids who also attend the International schools (and often make up around 80% of the student body) tend to be of the rich/upper class variety, and there can be considerable snobbishness towards poorer people, including their teachers, and towards American students for being different and less class-oriented.

- The public schools are taught almost entirely in Spanish and are not a good option for older kids who can't learn language as quickly and who would thus have to take difficult courses in a foreign language.

That said, the schools in the Cancun/Cozumel area did seem the most appealing to me. I think they would offer more of what Americans are looking for overall. Another option I found was homeschooling. There are a number of programs that allow kids to do high school work from a laptop, even connecting with online classrooms, and then fly back to the US twice per school year for final exams.

In our case, we decided to stick it out here in the US for the next three years. I just couldn't find a way to make it work easily, and I started to think about what my son would be doing after high school. Going to a US university with a high school degree from an International School in Mexico is do-able for sure, but then why are we moving there now, if he needs to come right back here for college? And if we stayed there, what type of college or work opportunities would he have in Mexico? I realized I was making a very big decision for him too, and I decided it makes more sense to just finish out his education here and then he can make these decisions for himself as an adult. As for me, I will probably start living part-time in Mexico eventually. Both my kids are older and I will have more flexibility soon.

Good luck with your search, it's definitely complicated, but not impossible!

 

We had considered putting it off too, but with my husband and myself having traveled a lot to various countries (even as kids), we have been exposed to so much more. We were actually both partially educated abroad and it's an invaluable experience. We come from a strong military background and have moved around a lot, so our kids are used to it and know that you can't always be around family. If our youngest decides to stay in Mexico after graduation, great - if not, that's great too. We want them to experience life as much as possible. I think exposing our son to different cultures will have more pros than cons, so for us moving to another country works.

That being said, I can certainly understand why you made the decision you did We all have to do what's best for us and our kids and that differs with each family. My son speaks another language besides English already, so I don't think it will be as hard on him to learn Spanish. My husband and I agreed that we will go to a Spanish Immersion class to assist him and my husband to learn the language. I could also use a refresher, so it can't hurt

Thank you for your response. I wish you all the best.

 

I believe Puerto Vallarta has an international school.. there are international schools in the larger cities like Mexico ,Puebla, Querétaro, Monterrey, Zapopan, Guadalajara ..wherever there are upper- class Mexicans or lots of expats who have younger kids .

 

I did look at the school in Puerto Vallarta, unfortunately it did not have tuition prices, which I'm sure are nothing like U.S. Private Schools. When we were looking to move to Jamaica, private school would have cost us about $3k U.S. per term and we are ok with that. I would think in Mexico it would be cheaper, but of course I can't be 100% sure. I think it's a viable location and I'm doing research...although my heart was kind of set on the Merida area

 

Yes! I looked at the International Schools in most of those places. Try to find reviews for schools you are interested in and you can read about other people's experiences with the schools.

 

Oh that's great! Yes I believe that an international experiences are wonderful for kids too! And it sounds like your kids are used to moving around, so they will adjust well. I looked into the International School in PV and the price was definitely more reasonable than the schools in Cancun and Cozumel. There are actually two International schools in PV, an American one and a British one. Check them both out; they both sounded pretty good.

I did not check out any of the schools in Merida, but I have been there and I can tell you it's a very nice area. We have some friends there and my older son flies down sometimes and stays for a week or so, and he just loves it! The area is not very touristy so the prices might be more reasonable too. From my research, the Cancun/Cozumel schools seemed to be the most "built up," meaning that they offered pretty much everything Americans would be looking for, including accredited US high school diplomas, with pretty robust populations of American kids, but the prices were the highest.

Good luck!

 

I think this is the info for the American School of PV, including tuition. FYI.

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