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Pathways to Potential reduces truancy at Kalkaska County school

The Pathways to Potential program is finishing its second year in Kalkaska County with significant success in reducing chronic truancy among students and engaging with families to remove barriers to learning.

Pathways employees Bryan Flory and Cindy Hohman in the county MDHHS office have worked within the Birch Street School to connect families with resources and to develop an incentive program for students to attend school. Last year, chronic absence rates dropped 12 percent, and this year they have dropped another 5 percent.

Pathways to Potential is an MDHHS program that places success coaches in schools and other facilities to help students, their families and others overcome barriers to success.

Pictured above are Birch Street second-graders who won the March 2017 Grade level Attendance Competition. They are posing with a variety of playground equipment that they earned by having the best attendance in March. The playground equipment was donated by the local Meijer store and other supportive businesses. Here is a full-size picture.