Other Education Projects
Natchitoches School Readiness Project
November 2013
The Natchitoches Area Chamber of Commerce and Northwestern State University Child and Family Network began work on the “The Natchitoches School Readiness Pilot Program” in 2011. The goal of the project was to work with childcare centers, teachers, children and families to provide ongoing and onsite support, resources, and materials that would lead to an increase in literacy knowledge and development for “School Readiness” skills for children birth to 4 years of age.
The first full year Pilot took place in 2012-2013 at Daddy's Daycare and Learning Center located on Sabine Street owned and operated by Daryl and Latrisha Walker. The center was awarded their 3rd Star in June 2013 by the Quality Rating Star Program of Louisiana.
The Pilot Project has now evolved into the Natchitoches School Readiness Project. This project will work with Class A centers around Natchitoches parish participating in the Quality Start Program. Three centers will be chosen for a six-month focus, while the remaining centers will receive grants for Chamber membership, materials and continuing education. The focus centers will receive one-on-one technical assistance from the NSU Child and Family Network in an effort to raise the environmental scores of the center while escalating the star rating. Another round of focused instruction for three more centers will begin in mid-2014. The Project aims to have each Class A center in the program at a 3-star level.
Funding the Natchitoches School Readiness Project
Get Credits For Donations.
In addition, businesses can receive a dollar-for-dollar refundable tax credit for up to $5,000 for donations to Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies. These are private agencies that contract with the Department of Children and Family Services to provide important information and services to parents and child care providers.
For questions, please contact Tony Davis, Chamber President, or your tax preparer.
Funds are donated to the Northwestern State University Foundation, where they are kept in a separate account for this project.
Businesses may claim a refundable tax credit for up to $5,000 in grants to one or more Child Care Resource and Referral agencies. Remember, this credit is dollar for dollar and is not subject to the percentages listed in the chart below. The maximum amount of contribution may exceed $5,000, but only $5,000 per contribution is eligible for the SRTC tax credit.
The refundable credit can be taken against individual income tax, corporation income tax, or corporation franchise tax depending on the business’s entity type as follows:
- Individual income tax credit—If the business making the donation is owned by a sole proprietor or a flow-through entity such as a Limited Liability Company (LLC), Partnership, Subchapter S corporation, the credit will be claimed on the Resident Individual Income Tax return, Form IT-540, Schedule F, or the Nonresident and Part-Year Resident Individual Income Tax Return, Form IT-540B, Schedule F-NR. Partners and shareholders should apportion the credit based on the each partner or shareholder’s percentage of ownership.
- Corporation income or franchise tax credits—If the business making the donation is a corporation or C-corporation, the credit will be claimed on the Corporation Income and Franchise Tax Return, Form CIFT-620, Schedule RC.
- Nonprofit Organizations—If the entity making the donation is a nonprofit organization, the tax credit must be taken on the Corporation Income and Franchise Tax Return, Form CIFT-620, Schedule RC. If the nonprofit organization is not registered with the Department of Revenue because it is exempt, the organization must register and obtain a Louisiana tax identification number and file the tax return to claim the credit
All businesses are eligible to receive the tax credit. A business is defined as any for-profit or not-for-profit entity and includes sole proprietors (so long as the individual is not acting in his/her personal capacity), partnerships, limited liability corporations and corporations. The SRTC is not available to individuals who make donations.
Natchitoches Early Childhood Education Pilot Project
2012 -
The Chamber has announced the Early Childcare Pilot Project to work with early childcare providers. The intent of the program is to assist centers to better prepare children for school. Studies have shown repeatedly that children ready and able to learn when entering grade school progress tremendously faster and with notably less chance of falling behind. These studies show that a dollar spent better preparing a student before starting school goes exponentially further than that same dollar working to remediate an older student.
The Pilot Project aims to raise the collective scores of sample children screened at the beginning of the program, as well as assist the center in progressing at least one star-rating on the Louisiana Quality Start program rating scale. The Pilot Project seeks to provide technical and material needs to the center as deemed necessary through an initial evaluation by a representative from the NSU Child and Family Network, our region's offical resource and referal network.
Centers are chosen as funds are made available and progress is noted for previous centers. Selection is through the Early Childhood Committee and based on objective metrics with input from the NSU Child and Family Network.
