There is a local saying that what gets measured gets done,
meaning when attendance is monitored, staff will enter data
daily. In Head Start, the inconsistency of monitoring and
enforcing reporting absences prevented reliable information
or a cohesive message to the community that preschool
attendance is important. Thirty-one excessively absent Head
Start students following the winter break brought the program’s
attendance from 93% to 84% and negatively affected
the aggregate attendance from Year 1 to Year 2. Only 16 of
the students were known to the FNP. Without systematic
buy-in to address early school absence, the FNP role is
palliative at best.