Spain's 29 November election: which education rules lapse and which go ahead

On 5 October, Spain's Council of Ministers approved, at an extraordinary meeting, Royal Decree 806/2026 dissolving Parliament and calling a general election for 29 November. The BOE, Spain's official gazette, published it the following day. The campaign runs from 13 to 27 November and the new chambers will be constituted on 23 December.

Dissolution has an immediate effect on rules in progress: all business pending in Congress lapses, except popular legislative initiatives. According to a count by the Civio foundation, 309 initiatives fall away, 89 government bills and 220 members' bills. In education the effect is uneven: anything that needed a law falls, and anything going through as a royal decree can continue. This article reviews both groups and what they mean for each type of school.

Why some rules lapse and others do not

The difference lies in who has to approve them:

• Laws are passed by Parliament. The Rules of Procedure of the Congress state that, when the chamber is dissolved, all business pending examination lapses, except what the Standing Committee must deal with. A bill at committee stage is not frozen: it disappears, and the next government would have to approve it again in the Council of Ministers and send it back to Congress.
• Popular legislative initiatives do not lapse. The law that governs them provides for them to be taken up again in the new legislature.
• Royal decrees are approved by the Government. They do not go through Parliament, so dissolution does not stop them. They follow their usual procedure: public consultation, hearings, reports and, for education decrees, an opinion from the State School Council. When they develop a law, an opinion from the Council of State is usually needed too.
• Royal decree-laws remain possible in urgent cases. With Parliament dissolved, they are validated by the Standing Committee of the Congress.

Until 29 November the Government keeps all its powers. Afterwards it becomes a caretaker government and, under the Government Act, limits itself to ordinary public business, except in duly justified cases of urgency or general interest.

What lapses

• The class-size and teaching-hours bill. The bill approved by the Government on 21 April 2026 set a maximum of 22 students per class in primary and 25 in lower secondary in publicly funded schools, and a cap of 23 and 18 weekly teaching hours for state-school teachers. It was in Congress and has lapsed. The Government itself sees it as hard to revive. We explain it in detail in the class-size and teaching-hours bill.
• The law on protecting minors in digital environments. Among other measures, it raised the minimum age for signing up to social media to 16 and required device makers to warn of risks on their labelling. It was at committee stage and will not be passed in this legislature.
• The Families Act, which the Ministry of Social Rights was steering.
• The Trainee Statute, which regulated non-employment training placements and also affected training centres and academies that manage placements, will not go ahead in this legislature either.

For any of these rules to come back, the next government would have to introduce it again and start the procedure from scratch.

What can go ahead: royal decrees

A royal decree is approved by the Council of Ministers and does not go through Parliament. That is why the Ministry of Education, Vocational Training and Sport has sped up several texts:

• The royal decree on early-years and upper secondary class sizes. The Ministry took it to the Council of Ministers on 20 October and it is due to go before the Standing Committee of the State School Council on 29 October. It sets a maximum of 4, 6 and 8 children depending on age in the 0-3 stage, 20 students in the 3-6 stage (25 today), 30 in upper secondary (35 today) and 15 in basic vocational training. Students with special educational needs would count double. In early years, it would start in 2027-2028 and apply fully in 2029-2030; in upper secondary and basic vocational training, it would start with the first year in 2029-2030. Primary and lower secondary are left out, because lowering their class sizes required a law. For nurseries, we analyse it in the new 0-3 nursery ratios.
• The royal decree on quality in private vocational training centres, with minimum in-person attendance in online programmes and caps on students per teacher. We summarise it in the private vocational training decree.
• Other texts in progress: a royal decree that would let regions create teaching specialisms for legally protected non-official languages, and a new decree on creating and recognising universities, in public consultation from 15 to 30 October after the Supreme Court annulled the previous one.
• Grants for 2027-2028. On 27 October, the Council of Ministers authorised the urgent processing of the royal decree on income thresholds and amounts, which has to be approved in February or early March for the call to arrive on time.

There is a practical limit: anything not published in the BOE before 29 November will be left to the next government. And after the election, the caretaker government is limited in principle to ordinary business, except in cases of urgency or general interest.

What does not change

It is worth remembering, because there will be a lot of noise in the coming weeks:

• The LOMLOE education law remains in force, as do the royal decrees on minimum curricula and each region's admission rules.
• Current class sizes stay as they were. Until the new royal decree is published and its timeline arrives, the legal maximums do not change.
• Funding agreements with state-funded private schools, the school calendar and regional calls depend on each region and are not affected by the dissolution of Parliament.
• Rules already published in the BOE remain in force, such as the e-invoicing order.

And on the tax side

Two matters that affect any school's invoicing:

• Verifactu. On the same 5 October, the Finance Ministry announced its intention to postpone it to October 2028, but the change needs a rule that, at the time of writing, is not in the BOE. Until it arrives, the January and July 2027 dates still apply. We explain it in the Verifactu postponement.
• E-invoicing between businesses. Dissolution does not affect it: Order HAC/1028/2026 is already published and in force, with deadlines in October 2027 and October 2028.

What it means for each type of school

• State-funded private schools: the national obligation to go down to 22 and 25 students in primary and lower secondary disappears for now. Regions can still set their own lower class sizes, as Andalusia did with 22 students in the 3-year-old class from this school year. If the royal decree is approved, early years and upper secondary will have new maximums.
• Nurseries: the royal decree on 0-3 ratios continues its course and is the change with the greatest financial impact. Planning places and staff for 2027-2028 should take it into account.
• Private vocational training centres: the quality decree could be approved before 29 November.
• Academies: the Trainee Statute will not go ahead in this legislature. The most relevant issue remains the Verifactu timeline.
• All schools: keep an eye on Verifactu, because if the postponement is not formalised, companies would have to comply on 1 January 2027.

Two dates that matter for planning

If the class-size royal decree is published with the known timeline, its first effects arrive sooner than it seems, because places are offered months before the school year starts:

• The 3-year-old class in 2027-2028. Places are set for the admission process in spring 2027. A school with two classes of 25 in the 3-year-old year would offer 40 places with a maximum of 20, unless it opens a third class.
• The baby room in 2027-2028. Enrolment for babies starting in September 2027 often closes in spring. With a maximum of 4 babies per room, according to the version taken to the Council of Ministers, a nursery that today has rooms of 8 would need twice as many rooms or half the places.

In both cases, the prudent approach is to prepare two scenarios for places, with the current ratio and with the decree's, and decide when it is published.

What to watch in the coming weeks

1. The Council of Ministers' summaries, published every Tuesday by La Moncloa.
2. The BOE, the only thing that turns an announcement into law.
3. The State School Council, which gives its opinion on education royal decrees before they are approved.
4. Your regional government, which can approve its own rules on class sizes, calendars or mobile phone use regardless of what happens nationally.

Timeline: the key dates

• 5 October: dissolution of Parliament, publication of the e-invoicing order and announcement of the Verifactu postponement.
• 6 October: the BOE publishes Royal Decree 806/2026 and the e-invoicing order enters into force.
• 20 October: the class-size royal decree goes to the Council of Ministers.
• 27 October: the Council of Ministers authorises urgent processing of the royal decree on grant thresholds for 2027-2028.
• 29 October: planned review of the class-size royal decree by the Standing Committee of the State School Council.
• 13 to 27 November: election campaign.
• 29 November: general election. From then on, a caretaker government.
• 23 December: the new Parliament is constituted.
• 1 January 2027: Verifactu date for companies if the postponement has not been published.
• February or March 2027: planned approval of the royal decree on grant thresholds.

What to answer if families ask

The office will get questions about all this. Three short answers that are correct at the time of writing:

• "Are class sizes coming down next year?" In primary and lower secondary there is no national change planned, because the bill lapsed. In early years and upper secondary there is a royal decree in progress which, if approved, would start applying in early years in 2027-2028.
• "Is social media being banned for under-16s?" Not for now: the law that provided for it lapsed with the dissolution. School and regional rules on mobile phone use stay the same.
• "Are grants changing?" The Government has started processing the thresholds for 2027-2028, which are expected to be known in February or March.

Conclusion

The snap election cancels the education laws that were in Congress, such as the class-size bill for primary and lower secondary or the law on minors online, but it does not stop the royal decrees the Government can publish before 29 November. For a school, the useful thing is to separate what will no longer arrive from what may still arrive within weeks, and not to plan around announcements that are not in the BOE.

If you want students per group, places and enrolment trends at hand when it is time to adjust your offer to new class sizes, see Edena for schools or book a demo.