Child Care Inspection Program
Child care may be provided in a family child care home, a group home, a child care center, or a licensed-exempt facility (nursery school or a facility run by a religious organization). Licenses are issued to family child care homes, group homes and child care centers based on compliance with state regulations. Nursery schools and child care programs operated by religious organizations (called license-exempt facilities) are not required to be licensed but must be inspected annually regarding health and safety, fire safety and sanitation. Child care is regulated through various aspects, such as: staffing requirements on the number of children under the supervision of an adult, health rules to curb the spread of disease, background screenings, childhood injury prevention, fire safety, environmental health issues, staff training and education, physical plant requirements, space requirements and equipment requirements.
Missouri law requires any person who provides child care for more
than four children not related to the provider to be licensed by the
Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.
Jasper County currently inspects over 60 licensed child care
facilities. These
inspections are unannounced but usually fall within the same month
each year. For a list of Child Care facilities, visit the Department
of Health and Senior Services website at the following link:
http://ccregu.dhss.mo.gov/smcc/pnpdefault.aspx. Select
County, or City, or Zip Code and click
Search.
To
open a new child care facility within Jasper County you must first
contact Heidi Adams at the District Department of Health office in
Springfield at 417-895-6531.
Once Mrs. Adams has approved your initial inspection she will
send a request to the JCHD to inspect the facility on an annual
basis. If you have more questions about child care in Missouri check
out the states website at:
http://www.dhss.mo.gov/ChildCare/index.html