From the perspective of addressing barriers to learning, welcoming and social support are essential facets of every school's transition programs. The figures are greater in school districts with large immigrant populations. Youngsters entering a new school and neighborhood are confronted with multiple transition challenges. The challenges are compounded when the transition also involves recent arrival in a new country and culture. Youngsters vary in capability and motivation with respect to dealing with psychological transition into new settings.
Students entering late in a school year often find it especially hard to connect and adjust.
Making friends means finding ways to be accepted into a complex social milieu. School-wide strategies to ensure school adjustment of newly entering students and their families can reduce adjustment problems, ease bicultural development, enhance student performance, and establish a psychological sense of community throughout the school. Welcoming and Social Support as Indicators of School Reform Welcoming new students and their families is part of the broader reform goal of creating schools where staff, students and families interact positively and identify with the school and its goals. Programs and related mechanisms and processes are needed to foster smooth transitions and positive social interactions facilitate social support provide opportunities for ready access to information and for learning how to function effectively in the school culture encourage involvement in decision-making. How well a school welcomes and involves new students and families are basic signs of program quality and staff attitudes.