The New York State Education Department on Monday released guidelines on how school districts should accommodate transgender students. Schools should use the pronouns students prefer, for example, and encourage administrators to be receptive of the gender identities of the young people in their charge.

The guidance, which was developed in concert with groups like the New York Civil Liberties Union and the Empire State Pride Agenda, is essentially the department’s reading of existing state and federal laws. And while these standards do not mark new formal regulations, advocates say they will help protect a vulnerable group.

“It’s not an area that many in education are expert in,” said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. “And despite the best of intentions — and sometimes, of course, not the best of intentions — students end up being marginalized, and schools end up being enablers of bullying and harassment that drives kids out of school.”

The guidelines, she continued, which address both transgender and gender nonconforming students, will give educators, parents and children an important tool. “Educators know how to do the right thing,” she said, “and parents and kids know what their rights are.”