When outreach worker Leah Marks shows up at homes in Sanford, Maine—a small manufacturing city 18 miles inland and a world away from tony Kennebunkport—the kids know it’s time to walk with her to the school bus.
Her walks often involve snow and ice this time of year. But what they really involve is connection.
Marks, outreach coordinator for the Sanford schools, said a boy she walked in the morning went from missing 45 days last school year to missing just one so far this school year. Marks said his single mom is raising him and two siblings, one with a disability, and the family was struggling to get him to the bus on time.
