Students guides are given a note to leave their classes a few minutes early in order to facilitate this. We are a private school and get a big influx of new students in 7th grade from the public schools. We take the buddy system one step further. The first week or two of school, volunteers take the students around. After the teachers see possible friendships develop, that information is passed on to administration who contacts the parents of the veteran student to ask them if they would mind inviting the new family to future school functions.
Most parents are happy to participate.
The new families are happy to have someone they know when they show up for school events. The other thing we do is to have several student council members take the new student to lunch at a local restaraunt. I look forward to your findings since I think our response is inadequate and my school is in the fastest growing county in Missouri. For new entrants, we have a committee of students who are trained by our counselor to welcome new entrants. The welcoming students adopt the new entrant for several days, inviting them to have lunch with them, escorting them to exploratory classes, and just generally being a buddy until they are ready to fly on their own.