These guidelines for school location planning (SLP) provide a methodology for countries borrowing from the World Bank for the purpose of expanding and improving their education systems. The discussion is presented in four major sections. In Section A SLP is defined more exactly, and examples are given to illustrate the range of situations in which it can make a major contribution. Sections B and C examine the complementary roles of national and local planning respectively. At the national scale the program ensures the establishment of a set of norms regarding schools and their location and allocates resource expenditures between local authorities. The local educational authorities then apply these norms to generate a rational school map. In the concluding Section D of the guidelines, these two major components are brought together in a discussion of a possible administrative and implementation structure. Appendices include a description of SLP in four recent World Bank financed projects, together with a review of the state of existing knowledge on the journey-to-school and its effects on attendance, dropout, and performance in primary schools. Sources of and job descriptions for technical assistance in this field are also given. (Author/MLF)