The Guidance Notes on Safer School Construction present a framework of guiding principles and general steps to develop a context-specific plan to address this critical gap to reaching EFA and the MDGs through the disaster resilient construction and retrofitting of school buildings. The guidance notes consist of four components: 1. General information and advocacy points (Sections 2-4), 2. A series of suggested steps (Section 5), 3. A compilation of basic design principles (Section 6), 4. A broad list of references to resources (Appendix 3).