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NOM-035: the psychosocial risk standard that your school, as a workplace, must also comply with

October 5, 2026 · 4 min read

NOM-035 has been in effect since 2019, and almost no private school knows it as something that applies to them: it’s often seen as something for corporate offices. But the criterion of the standard isn’t the type of business, it’s having contracted personnel — and a school with teachers, administrative staff, and janitorial personnel on payroll is, for the Secretaría del Trabajo, a workplace just like any other.

Your school is a workplace, not just an educational institution

NOM-035-STPS-2018, published in the Official Journal of the Federation on September 4, 2018, under the name "Psychosocial risk factors at work - Identification, analysis, and prevention," has a clear goal: that workplaces in Mexico identify, analyze, and prevent factors that generate psychosocial risks among their staff, and promote a positive organizational environment.

The standard does not distinguish by business type. The only factor that determines applicability is whether there is contracted personnel — and a private school, besides educating, employs: those who teach, those who handle administration, and those who take care of the premises. Before the Secretaría del Trabajo y Previsión Social (STPS), that staff makes the school a workplace subject to the same obligations as an office, a factory, or a hospital.

What exactly you are responsible for, depending on how many people work with you

The standard divides obligations into three levels, and each one ADDS to the previous — it does not replace:

- Up to 15 workers: establish, disseminate, and maintain a psychosocial risk prevention policy within the school, and identify those who have experienced a severe traumatic event during or related to work (a robbery, a serious accident, an assault) to refer them for professional support.

- From 16 to 50 workers: in addition to the above, identify and analyze psychosocial risk factors for all staff using the questionnaire published by STPS for this purpose, and implement control measures if the analysis indicates it.

- More than 50 workers: in addition to the above, evaluate the organizational environment of the school — another official questionnaire, covering leadership, work relationships, sense of belonging, and working conditions.

To determine your school’s level, count ALL contracted personnel: teachers, administrative staff, janitorial, security — not just the academic team.

What it means to "comply" in practice, not just on paper

Having a prevention policy is not just a paragraph stored away. The standard expects four things that can be demonstrated if someone requests them:

- A written policy, dated and signed by the school director.

- Evidence that it was communicated to staff — it’s not enough to have drafted it; you must be able to prove it was disseminated.

- If the school has 16 or more workers, the confidential questionnaires administered, along with their results and the corresponding analysis.

- A record of the measures taken when the analysis identified issues to address.

The problem is usually not ignorance of the standard: it’s having a written policy once and never updating it, with no questionnaires administered and nothing to show during an inspection.

What happens if there’s no evidence during an inspection

The Federal Labor Law authorizes the STPS to sanction non-compliance with Mexican Official Standards regarding safety and hygiene at work, and the penalty amount is calculated based on Units of Measurement and Update according to the severity of the case — it’s the inspector who determines this upon reviewing each specific workplace, so there’s no single figure that applies to all equally.

Beyond the fine, what truly matters for a school is another thing: if one day there’s a labor complaint related to the work environment, the next question is whether the school had identified that risk and what actions were taken. Not having anything documented is not neutral — it’s evidence that nothing was done.

A practical checklist to get started

- Count ALL your contracted staff — teachers, administration, janitorial, security — to determine your school’s level according to the standard.

- Draft and disseminate in writing the psychosocial risk prevention policy, with date and signature of the director.

- If you have 16 or more workers, administer the official STPS questionnaire and keep the results.

- Document any control measures you implement based on that analysis.

- If someone experienced a severe traumatic event, record it and refer them to professional support — don’t handle it internally without specialized help.

Your school already has the habit of protecting those on the students’ side. NOM-035 asks for exactly the same, but on the side of the people who make the school operate every day.