The North Carolina Early Childhood Initiative, better known as Smart Start, was implemented to ensure that all North Carolina children enter school healthy and prepared to succeed. In 1997, an evaluation team worked with four Smart Start partnerships to describe the current client information systems used by local partnerships and to determine the feasibility of creating a client information system. The client information system consists of a database used by all Smart Start-funded projects. It collects similar information from participants of all Smart Start projects across the state, using a unique identifier to link data across projects. The four partnerships attempted to gather the same basic client information from projects over a 4-month period. Among the findings: none of the partnerships could gather client information for all of their projects; partnerships did not have the staff or the technical expertise and support to continue working on the client information system; and some staff and client families expressed concern about providing personal information. As result of the findings, several state- and local-level recommendations were made, including that a client information system be broader than just Smart Start, and that Social Security numbers not be used as the unique identifiers in a client information system. (SD)