This toolkit is designed to assist transgender, gender non-conforming, questioning, and ally students to make school a safer place. Resources include how to advocate for change as well as an extensive list of resources to help you connect with the transgender community and find support.
Lambda Legal & National Youth Advocacy Coalition
This publication was developed in conjunction with the Putting Pride into Practice Project (“P4”), a three-year effort undertaken by Family Builders by Adoption, in partnership with the California Department of Social Services, to implement CWLA’s Best Practice Guidelines for Serving LGBT Youth in Out of Home Care in several county child welfare systems in California. The project provides training and technical assistance to build agency capacity and improve organizational competency through leadership and policy development, community and constituency engagement, and recruitment, training and support of placement resources.
Family Builders, Legal Services for Children, National Center for Lesbian Rights, Center for the Study of Social Policy (2013)
This model anti-harassment and non-discrimination policy is for child welfare and juvenile justice agencies who wish to adopt a policy that would prohibit all forms of harassment, create a safe environment for all youth and service providers, and ensure that all youth have equal access to all available services, placement, care, treatment, and benefits provided by the agency.
National Center for Lesbian Rights (2006)
The Promising Practices guide is the cornerstone of All Children-All Families as it outlines key benchmarks of LGBT cultural competency and providers a framework for agency affirmation of LGBT prospective parents.
Human Rights Campaign (2012)
All students need a safe and supportive school environment to progress academically and developmentally. Administrators, faculty, staff, and students each play an important part in creating and sustaining that environment. This guidance is intended to help school and district administrators take steps to create a culture in which transgender and gender nonconforming students feel safe, supported, and fully included, and to meet each school’s obligation to provide equal educational opportunities for all students, in compliance with G.L. c. 76, §5 and the state regulations. The guidance sets out general principles based on the law, and addresses common issues regarding transgender and gender nonconforming students. It offers case studies based on experiences of schools and students in Massachusetts, and reflects the need to consider issues on a case-by-case basis. The list of issues is not exhaustive, and the examples are intended to be illustrative, not prescriptive.
For the past several years, the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) has been working to bring attention to the unmet needs of youth in foster care who are expecting a child and/or parenting. This document is the cornerstone of a three-part compendium of sexual and reproductive health guidance and resources for child welfare jurisdictions. This document is intended primarily for child welfare leadership and policy makers. The document briefly explores the urgent need for comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care for youth in out-of-home care and lays down nine fundamental principles for action. It provides extensive guidance for jurisdictions as they consider the policies and practices they should have into place to better serve adolescents in or leaving foster care.
This toolkit provides sample legal language for adapting tribal resolutions and codes to recognize the rights of all tribal citizens, including Two Spirit and LGBTQ Natives. This is the third edition of the toolkit published with the support of a growing coalition of national organizations including the National LGBTQ Task Force, the Western States Center and the Center for American Progress.
Provides links to knowledge- and skill-building resources; including articles, videos, tools, training curricula, tip sheets, information briefs, websites, and other products, to help state and territorial child welfare agencies meet the needs of LGBTQ children, youth, and families.
Children’s Bureau, Child Welfare Information Gateway
This resource is a guide for making shelters safer for transgender people, including implement an effective nondiscrimination policy.
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Institute & National Coalition for the Homeless (2003)
This resource reviews polices and practice related to recruitment and retention which organizations should utilize to target and support LGBT-headed families.
Children’s Bureau Child Welfare Information Gateway (2011)
