K–12 Policies/Climate

Schools serve as an important and formative developmental context, especially because youth spend substantial amounts of time in school settings throughout adolescence. Cultivating positive school climates—characterized by perceived safety, interpersonal relationships with teachers and peers, teaching and learning environments, and physical environments of schools—is therefore fundamental to supporting the health and well-being of youth. Disparities in perceptions of school climate between LGBQ youth and their heterosexual peers are well documented. Trans youths’ experiences in schools, however, are largely not examined independently of LGBQ youth, if at all. Notably, a vast majority of studies use fairly narrow assessments of sexual orientation and gender identity generally. Acronyms throughout this entry are therefore reflective of how sexual orientation and gender identity are represented within the literature referenced. Additionally, ...