The Welcoming Schools Guide is a comprehensive resource that facilitates the creation of fully inclusive, respectful and supportive elementary school environments for all students and their families. Welcoming Schools is ideally implemented as a program with a clear starting point and the long-term goal of sustainable institutional change that occurs when all members of the school community — from the principal to the parents, the playground monitors to the school counselor, the classroom teachers to bus drivers — have a shared commitment to the principles and practices identified in Welcoming Schools, and act every day to uphold them. The objectives of the Welcoming Schools Guide are to help schools: Improve school climate so that all students and families feel safe and welcome; Increase family involvement Improve students‘ academic achievement ;Teach respect and diversity that includes LGBT topics in the context of the full range of diversity in our schools.