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Parents/Caregivers
Welcoming Schools knows that providing resources to parents and caregivers helps create an affirming and welcoming school. Do you need help working with your school to support your non-binary child? Does your child have a friend who has two dads? Do you want to read some books with your child that have LGBTQ or transgender characters?
Welcoming Schools provides families with the tools they need to embrace teachable moments and to be prepared to answer important questions about LGBTQ and gender topics at home with their children and within their school community.
Celebrating Inclusive Mother’s Day & Father’s Day
As we celebrate and honor caregivers in schools, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day can be opportunities to recognize the diversity of family structures.
Read Moreabout Celebrating Inclusive Mother’s Day & Father’s Day
Why Welcoming Schools Professional Development
HRC Foundation’s Welcoming Schools is the most comprehensive, bias-based bullying prevention program in the nation to provide LGBTQ and gender inclusive professional development training, lesson plans, booklists and resources specifically…
Gender and Children: A Place to Begin
Creating schools that nurture academic achievement, provide physical and emotional safety and welcome all students are common goals for all educators. In order for students to feel supported and empowered…
Family Education and Community Building
The involvement and understanding of the parents and guardians in the school community is critical to creating a welcoming school for all children. Family programs are also a great way…
Educators & Caregivers Booklists
Welcoming Schools educators & caregivers booklists are designed to help create classrooms, libraries and schools that are affirming of LGBTQ+ students, families and staff with high quality literature.
Definitions to Help Understand Gender and Sexual Orientation
Note: These definitions are for adults and older students.
Defining LGBTQ+ Words for Elementary School Students
When children ask questions about LGBTQ+ words, it is often best to offer simple and direct answers. You might choose to answer a student’s question with another question to figure…
Creating a Welcoming Early Childhood Education Program
A feeling of belonging is critical to every child’s well-being. This is illustrated starting in infancy and throughout early childhood with the drive to attach and form bonds. These bonds…
Celebrating Inclusive Mother’s Day & Father’s Day
As we celebrate and honor caregivers in schools, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day can be opportunities to recognize the diversity of family structures.
Affirming Gender in Elementary School: Social Transitioning
One of the first steps that all people—adults or children—take, if they feel their internal sense of gender and their sex assigned at birth do not match, is to socially…
A Parent’s Quick Guide for In-School Transitions
Parents and caregivers may find themselves, depending on circumstances, having to play a more active role in “educating the educators” as to what the school needs to do to support…