From “Handwritten Applications” to Real-Time Visibility
How one Head Start program made the leap to GoEngage—and what’s working (even years later).
Colleen Mayne-Butler, Program Specialist, at Community Action Planning Council of Jefferson County in New York, has been with her agency for nearly two decades. That kind of tenure means two things are true at the same time: she knows what “good” looks like, and she’s seen every version of “we’ve always done it this way.”
Her program is a Head Start serving 275 children, including 30 home-based, across multiple sites in Jefferson County. The agency itself has been around since 1966—a community institution with deep roots and a small admin team that wears all the hats: Family Services, ERSEA, health, disabilities, nutrition, education, mental health, in-kind, data, IT support, and everything in between.
So when systems don’t work, there isn’t a spare department to pick up the slack.
There’s just… Colleen. And her team. And the next deadline.
The Old Reality: Too Many Tabs. Too Much Re-Entry. Too Much Risk.
Before GoEngage, Colleen’s team handled applications largely by hand. Information lived in different places. Staff jumped between child tabs and family tabs. Data entered in one spot didn’t appear where it was needed next. Even checking whether an application was truly complete took time.
And when you’re managing eligibility, compliance timelines, health requirements, and family goals — missing one piece of information isn’t just frustrating. It’s stressful.
Colleen put it simply:
“We found people missed a lot of things.”
Not because they didn’t care — but because the system made it too easy to miss.
The breaking point: Applications by hand wasn’t working
Before GoEngage, a huge pain point wasn’t just inefficiency—it was risk.
Colleen described their old world in a way most Head Start teams will recognize instantly:
Paper/manual application processes (“terrible” in her words—too much to manage alone)
A system that wasn’t user-friendly and made it easy to miss critical pieces of information
Family and child information split across tabs, requiring constant jumping back and forth
Information not carrying forward—enter it in one place, then re-enter it somewhere else
A “viewing” experience that made it hard to track what was complete and what wasn’t
The result? Staff missed key information, the application flow felt disjointed, and accuracy depended too heavily on memory, workarounds, and “did you remember to…?”
For a program trying to stay compliant and serve families well, that’s exhausting.
The decision: “It was a team effort.”
This wasn’t a one-person purchase.
Colleen explained that their admin team and director sat down together, weighed pros and cons, attended demos, and made the decision collaboratively. That matters—because when staff have buy-in, implementation stops feeling like something being done to them and starts feeling like something they’re building together.
And still…
Even with buy-in, Colleen didn’t sugarcoat the emotional reality of change.
“Change is scary… At first, you're going to be like, ‘I think I made a mistake. Why did I do this?’”
If you’re reading this and you’ve thought that during a transition—she’s talking to you.
The shift: one system that “figures it all out for us.”
The first major win for Colleen’s team was simple, but huge:
Applications became connected instead of fragmented.
With GoEngage, Colleen described the difference like this:
Enter information once
It propagates where it needs to go
Staff don’t have to ask the same questions again
They don’t have to retype what they already collected
That’s not just a time-saver. It changes the feel of the work.
Instead of “Did we capture everything?” the question becomes “Are we ready for the next step?”
They also began using the online pre-application form, which meant less manual handling, fewer missed items, and a cleaner starting point before families even walk in the door.
What’s working now: the “glance and go” culture
Years after transitioning (Colleen believes it was around 2021, around the COVID era), the benefits are still stacking—because as her team keeps learning, they keep finding easier ways to work.
Here’s what’s standing out:
1) Health tracking becomes visual—not a math problem
Colleen called out the “45 days” reality—especially for children who enroll mid-year.
Instead of checking dates and counting days, staff see visual flags that show what’s coming due. Her health/disabilities specialist can track what needs attention “right there in front of you.” Staff can do data entry and monitoring from the same screen - that’s huge in keeping the staff accountable.
“The My Health Workbook helps staff to see right at a glance who needs what, and they can track that information better.”
Less mental load. Less risk. More follow-through.
2) Family Services feels more complete—and more human
Colleen highlighted their family needs assessments, not just for tracking, but for telling a clearer story about family growth over time.
And she loved that the tool supports conversation. Their staff complete needs assessments with families, in a dialogue—not like an interrogation.
That’s a small operational detail with a big family impact.
3) Home visits and goals connect without extra clicks
Colleen loved that staff can jump from home visit documentation directly into goals and needs assessment workflows—without leaving the page and hunting through tabs.
“I love in, like, our home visit forms“
“They don't have to leave their home visit, go into another tab. It's all inclusive in that one screen where they just jump in, do it, boop, out, back into the home visit again.“
That’s the sound of a system finally working the way staff actually work.
4) Attendance follow-up is documented automatically
One of the most persuasive moments in the conversation was attendance alerts.
Colleen described how the system can notify families and relevant staff—and then automatically document that outreach happened, which:
saves time
supports performance standards
reduces stress because the proof is already there
For programs that live inside timelines and documentation expectations, this is the kind of feature that quietly changes everything.
“The attendance alerts save a ton of time. Following up with families within a certain timeframe is part of our performance standards, and GoEngage handles that automatically for us. It sends the outreach, documents that it happened, and even creates the note — so we can show we’re reaching out without having to do all the manual work.”
5) Leadership and cross-team visibility improves
Colleen said it plainly:
“Oh yeah, for sure… everyone is using it.”
Center coordinators can see what’s going on. Master teachers can see family goals. Teams can view one another’s work, so when they come together for case conferencing, they’re not starting from scratch.
The system helps create alignment—without extra meetings.
The difference maker: support that feels like a partner
Colleen’s biggest contrast between GoEngage and their previous system wasn’t just features.
It was responsiveness and being heard.
She described their old experience as delayed responses and rigid limitations:
“days for responses,” or
“this is just how it is”
With GoEngage, her tone shifted:
responses in minutes
support that includes screenshots and guidance
feedback that gets taken seriously
a sense that GoEngage adapts with them because every program’s needs are different
“That hands-on… knowing you have someone there to help you is worth all the tears and change and the scariness.”
That’s not a line you can write as marketing. That’s lived experience.
The real takeaway for non-GoEngage users: it gets better—and you won’t do it alone
Colleen didn’t pretend transition is easy. She acknowledged the hard parts: the overwhelm, the second-guessing, the fear that staff will burn out on the learning curve.
But then she delivered the line that’s basically a roadmap for anyone considering a change:
Stick with it
You’re not alone
Once you learn it, it becomes second nature
And the system starts doing the work you used to do manually:
no re-entering data
no counting 45 days
no calculating application points
no scrambling for documentation
That’s the leap: moving from managing the system to using the system to manage the work.
There’s a better way
If your current system forces your team to retype the same information, chase timelines manually, and spend more time proving the work than doing the work—there’s a better way.
Colleen’s team took the leap, felt the fear, pushed through the learning curve, and came out with a system that helps them stay compliant, stay aligned, and stay focused on families.
Ready to see what that could look like for your program?
Let’s talk about your workflow, your pain points, and what a GoEngage transition would look like—step by step.
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By
Stacy Lewis: Senior Director of Business Development at Cleverex Systems
Stacy Lewis is the Senior Director of Business Development at Cleverex Systems, the creator of GoEngage. A trusted leader in the Head Start software space since 2001, Stacy brings over 24 years of experience, including key roles at ChildPlus, KinderSystems (COPA and California subsidy products), and Learning Genie, before joining GoEngage.
Throughout her career, Stacy has helped countless agencies optimize operations, enhance family engagement, and achieve compliance with federal and state standards. Her extensive industry knowledge and commitment to innovation continue to drive transformative solutions that empower Head Start programs to better serve children and families.
