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Shreveport workshop takes up child care center licensing matters

Kate Archer Kent

How to open a licensed child care center is the subject of a workshop on Thursday, March 7, in Shreveport. Northwestern State University’s Child and Family Network organizes the event. The network’s resources and referral specialist Margaret Goodwin said attending this workshop should be the first step for anyone who proposes to open a child care facility.

“Many people love children, and they think that if they just open the doors and have places for them to play that they can have a child care center," Goodwin said. "But child care is very much regulated. There are four regulatory agencies that oversee child care.”

Goodwin organized a slate of speakers from the Department of Children and Family Services licensing bureau, Metropolitan Planning Commission zoning office, state fire marshal’s office, and the Caddo Parish Health Unit. Goodwin said the biggest misstep she sees is when people fail to write a business plan for a proposed child care facility. The LSU Shreveport Small Business Development Center also is on the agenda.

"People are here and they can ask direct questions and get answers to their specific needs or issues that they want to talk to a person about instead of just reading about on the web site,” Goodwin said.

The three-hour workshop will be held March 7 at 6 p.m. at the NSU Child and Family Network office building in Shreveport. It’s one of seven child care resource and referral centers in the state. Goodwin said these workshops are also held in Alexandria.