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South Carolina

South Carolina, like all states, has a unique early childhood policy landscape that is shaped by economics, demographics, political history, coalitions, and other factors that create a state-specific environment for policy advocacy.

State early childhood policy progress is dependent both on the state’s environment and the numerous efforts—by the organizations listed on this page, other organizations, parents, policymakers, practitioners, and more—who work both independently and collaboratively to achieve wins for young children.

2024 State Early Childhood Policy Environment and Progress

Early Childhood Landscape:

Research shows that family economic security is foundational to children’s overall wellbeing. Research also shows that widespread disparities in opportunity (especially by race) drive wide disparities in outcomes. States with policies that offer strong support to young children and their families are more likely to see 1) declining numbers of children in low-income households and 2) low racial disparity among those children.

Young Children in Low-Income Households: Declining

Approximately 44% (225,000) of the state’s children 0-8 live in households below 200% FPL (2022). This number represents a decrease from 50% (261,000) in 2017.¹

Racial Disparity Among Young Children Living in Low-Income Households: High

Black, Hispanic/Latino, and/or Native children aged 0-8 are significantly more likely to be living in households below 200% of the Federal Poverty Level than are Asian and non-Hispanic White children.²

(NOTE: Selecting for age 0-8, state, and race can yield small cell sizes that can make percentages less accurate. Bars marked with S indicate data with extremely small cell sizes, which is not displayed. Bars marked with C should be interpreted with caution. Though the cell sizes are larger, they still fall below a threshold of reliability.)

Advocacy Landscape:

State General Fund Appropriations: Growing

South Carolina’s fiscal 2025 budget became effective July 3 following line-item vetoes from the governor totaling $2.3 million. The total state budget for fiscal 2025 is $40.2 billion, an increase of 3.6 percent, or $1.4 billion, over fiscal 2024. The general fund portion is $12.4 billion in fiscal 2025, an increase of 6.7 percent, or $783.9 million, over the current year. The May 2024 revenue forecast for fiscal 2025 is $12.5 billion in net general fund revenues, a decrease of 0.06 percent from fiscal 2024. In the fiscal 2025 budget, more than $24.0 million was added to the General Reserve Fund, for a total of $739.5 million, which is 6.0 percent of the previous year’s general fund revenues. Total state reserves are more than $1.1 billion.³

Key Revenue Sources (after federal transfers):⁴

- - Charges ($2,490 per capita)
  - Property Taxes ($1,380 per capita)

South Carolina uses all major state and local taxes. Charges are public payments connected with a specific government service, such as tuition paid to a state university, payments to a public hospital, or highway tolls.

State Budget Rules:⁴

South Carolina uses an annual budget. The legislature must pass a balanced budget and it is prohibited from carrying a deficit over into the following year. South Carolina further limits spending with a budget rule based on personal income growth. The rule requires a special vote to override the limit. South Carolina also limits authorized debt and debt service.

Permanent State Funding Stream Dedicated to Early Childhood: Yes

South Carolina is the only state that provides funding for early care and education from dedicated sales tax revenue. In 1984, the state instituted a 1 percent sales tax to improve the state’s education programs. A portion of these funds now go toward improving the school readiness of at-risk four-year-olds by providing free early care and education. In 2021, the state dedicated over $50 million from sales tax funds to expand pre-K services.

Political Alignment: Aligned Republican

During the 2024 session, the state’s Senate and House were both Republican controlled. The state’s Governor was also a Republican.⁵

Types of Ballot Measures Available:⁶One

- Legislature-Initiated Constitutional Amendments – A constitutional amendment that appears on a state’s ballot as a ballot measure because the state legislature in that state voted to put it before the voters.

Key State Policy Advocacy Organizations Include:

Early Childhood Policy Advocacy Multi-State Initiatives Include:⁷

2024 Policy Progress:

Highlights from the state’s early childhood policy advocacy community include:⁸

S 862 expands the list of accepted educational requirements, therefore expanding the hiring pool for child care providers. Additionally, it eliminates the requirement that applicants must have six months of experience as a caregiver before being hired and instead allows new workers to complete 15 hours of health and safety training within 30 days of starting their new job. With safety in mind, the new workers still need to be directly supervised until the required training is completed.

Through H 4832, paid family leave is now more accessible across the state, and in particular to small business owners who may want to offer the benefit to their employees. The Act formally authorizes optional insurance products to cover at least two weeks of paid time off for employees who need to care for family members, including newborn children.

S 418 comprehensively amends the SC Read to Succeed Act. The amended Act requires that all reading instruction, interventions, and other reading services offered by the Department of Education align with the science of reading, and all instructional approaches must be grounded in research conforming to established scientific principles. Additionally, the Act explicitly excludes the use of any materials that employ the three-cueing system model of reading, visual memory as the primary basis for teaching word recognition, or the three-cueing system model of reading based on meaning, structure, and syntax.

The General Assembly announced the formation of a new Special Joint Committee to address the availability and affordability of child care in South Carolina. This six-member committee is tasked with examining the state of child care in South Carolina and delivering comprehensive recommendations to the Senate President and Speaker of the House that will make quality child care options more accessible for parents. The Committee met monthly throughout session to receive testimony from parents, providers, members of the business community, and the Department of Social Services. They have not yet provided their recommendations to the bodies.

Ongoing Grantee Issue Areas:

Our lead ally in South Carolina, South Carolina First Steps (First Steps), is the statewide initiative for school readiness. It operates as both a state agency and a nonprofit organization, with a network of 46 subsidiary nonprofit partnerships. These local partnerships leverage state funding to fill gaps in services, connect children and families to services, convene local stakeholders around the needs of young children, and support state school readiness priorities. The First Steps state office also administers the state’s mixed delivery, full-day 4K program in private settings.

South Carolina First Steps is working to advance early childhood policies in several areas that align with the Alliance’s birth-through-eight policy framework:

Early Care and Education

Child Care

Child Care Workforce

Preschool and Pre-K

Child and
Maternal Health

Early Intervention 0-3

Infant and Child Health

Maternal Health

Family
Supports

Home Visiting

Paid Family and Medical Leave

Early Childhood Infrastructure

Data systems

Early Childhood Governance

RECENT ADVOCACY SNAPSHOT:

South Carolina Launches a New Human-Centered Portal to Transform Access to Early Childhood Services

February 17, 2022

First Five SC is a new comprehensive portal that aims to increase access and knowledge of South Carolina public early childhood state system programs and services. The portal is unique to the state since it was created by responding to the needs and concerns of South Carolina parents and caregivers.

NOTES:

¹Kids Count Data Center, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Children Ages 0 to 8 Below 200 Percent Poverty, January, 2024.

²National Center for Children in Poverty, Children Ages 0 through 8 Below 200 Percent Poverty, October 2024, NCCP analysis of ACS 5-Year Estimates – Public Use Microdata Sample 2018-2022.

³National Association of State Budget Officers, Proposed and Enacted Budgets, FY 2025.

⁴Urban Institute, State Fiscal Briefs, June 2024.

⁵National Conference of State Legislatures, 2024 State & Legislative Partisan Composition, April 29, 2024.

⁶Ballotpedia, Ballot Measures by State, Kids Count Data Center, retrieved July, 2024.

⁷Alliance for Early Success, Multi-State Initiatives for Early Childhood Policy Advocacy, July, 2024.

⁸Alliance for Early Success, State-Wide Advocacy Highlights Survey, April-October, 2024; and 2024 Prenatal-to-3 Legislative Highlights, Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center, July, 2024.