Update: Louisiana Bureaucrats Block Social Worker, So She Hired the Kids Herself
5th June 2026
Bizarrely, in many states, if you want to start a business, you first must convince bureaucrats that your business is “needed.”
Four years ago, Louisiana blocked social worker Ursula Newell-Davis from helping kids with special needs. Bureaucrats said she hadn’t proved her business was needed.
“Why does the state of Louisiana have the right to stop me from doing what I love?” she asks in this update video.
Good question. Ursula has a master’s degree and a social work license. For two decades, she’s helped kids with special needs.
One, Kamal, told us he struggled to make friends, until Ursula “helped teach me how to talk to people.”
Kamal’s mother is grateful: “She explained to me things that I didn’t understand about my kids. It allowed me to go back into the community and work.”
Ursula helped many families. But four years ago, she tried to help more kids by doing short-term respite work.
Louisiana wouldn’t let her.