Hundreds of families across South Carolina are at risk of losing vital scholarships needed to afford quality child care.
The South Carolina Department of Social Services (DSS) paused accepting applications for its Child Care Scholarship Program on Dec. 1, 2025. Three months later, many local families and child care providers are feeling the impact.
The Child Care Scholarship Program increases the accessibility of child care for families earning 85% or below the state median income, which is approximately $87,161 annually for a family of four. According to DSS, 31,635 children were served by the state’s scholarship program in December 2025.
Scholarship recipients approved before the pause will receive their full 52 weeks of financial assistance for child care. However, families whose scholarships are set to expire cannot currently reapply to the program unless they fall into specific federally defined protected categories. These categories include families experiencing homelessness, living in a domestic violence shelter, having a child with a disability, receiving welfare benefits and other similar situations.
Mia Person, a Greenville County resident, has used the scholarship program to access child care for her three children for the past four years. She currently pays $40 a week for child care with the scholarship she receives. However, Person’s scholarship is scheduled to expire in June, which would require her to pay the full cost of child care – between $200 and $300 per child each week.
“My options are to honestly stay at home with the kids or try to find a work-from-home job,” Person said. “Right now, as I’m working and I know I have these vouchers, I’m trying to stack that little bit of money that I have to make me a little bit of extra cushion if that doesn’t happen.”
Connelly-Anne Ragley, chief external affairs officer for DSS, said the decision to pause applications for the Child Care Scholarship Program came down to the limited available funding, which is insufficient to meet the program’s high demand. This problem was exacerbated by the delay of federal funding during the government shutdown in October and November 2025.
“It’s a decision that we did not make lightly and at the end of the day we can’t spend more money than we have,” Ragley said.
Limited child care funding
DSS spent a total of $286.2 million on child care scholarship payments in 2025. The department typically spends between $20 million and $24 million per month assisting families with the cost of child care. The scholarships are supported by both federal and state funding.
Federal discretionary funding through the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) primarily finances the scholarship program. Ragley said the state receives between $150 and $160 million in CCDF funds each year. South Carolina contributes roughly $14 million annually to the Child Care Scholarship Program in matching funds.
DSS also received $954.5 million in federal relief fundsto support the state’s child care sector during the COVID-19 pandemic. The additional federal funding was used to help more families access affordable child care. Ragley said this funding is now all gone.
“This is really a federal benefit cliff,” Ragley said. “This is a side effect of federal money that was once pumped into the state during COVID that is no longer available for us to access.”
DSS needs more funding for the Child Care Scholarship Program before it can reopen the application process. Additional funds are currently not available at the federal level. Ragley explained that the state receives the maximum amount of CCDF discretionary funds available based on the formula established by the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act.
An additional $20 million in recurring state funding was requested by DSS to be included in the South Carolina General Assembly’s fiscal year 2026-2027 budget to support the Child Care Scholarship Program. Ragley said the state House’s version of the budget, passed on March 10, did not include additional funding for child care. The state Senate will take up the budget in April.
“As far as like a timeline as to when we’re going to reopen the scholarship program, we really just don’t know,” Ragley said. “We’ve got to try to right-size the program to preserve it, to keep it going.”
Widespread impact
Parents and guardians across the state rely on the scholarship program to access affordable child care while they go to work or attend school. Kenya Edmond, a single mother in Greenville County, works 55 to 60 hours a week as a CNC machinist. She uses scholarships to help pay for child care for her two children, including after-school programs and summer camps. Now her scholarships are scheduled to expire in May.
“I was really relying on us getting approved for the scholarship for the summertime, and now I’m going to have to kind of make other arrangements if I can’t afford it,” Edmond said.
Child care providers are also feeling the impact of the scholarship application pause. Wilatre Kennon owns two child care centers in Greenville County: Especially Children Child Development Center and Especially Children Child Development Center Too. Approximately 90% of the children enrolled at her centers receive scholarships from DSS.
Kennon said eight children have left her center due to expired scholarships. She has started to provide $75 to $125 discounts to parents whose scholarships have expired. Kennon said this has allowed some families to delay removing their children from the child care center.
“We’re not sure, you know, how long we can afford it, but we are trying to bridge the gap,” Kennon said. “But at some point, this bridge is going to break because we’re in business to make a profit.”
LaVonda Paul, owner and director of Small Impressions Child Development Center in Taylors, has also been exploring different options to help lessen the financial burden for her families. For example, she has given out around $3,000 in scholarships each month and plans to start fundraising to assist struggling families.
Paul, Kennon and other local child care providers have also joined parents in contacting elected officials in Washington and the statehouse to advocate for more funding for the Child Care Scholarship Program. Kennon said around 500 letters, signed by providers, parents and even children, were sent to state and federal politicians.
“We’re trying to advocate for our families and advocate for our children. It’s not the children’s fault that the government has gone through what they have gone through,” Kennon said. “We’re just trying to make sure that at least people know that it’s a problem.”
Child care scholarship payments in South Carolina by year
- 2019: $65,325,249
- 2020: $88,502,191
- 2021: $97,090,620
- 2022: $133,554,283
- 2023: $197,376,381
- 2024: $232,543,673
- 2025: $286,245,463
Source: South Carolina Department of Social Services
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Quotes
“The demand for child care assistance remains incredibly high. Families need assistance, especially as the cost of everything is increasing, whether that is groceries, rent or utilities.” – Connelly-Anne Ragley, chief external affairs officer for the South Carolina Department of Social Services
“Right now, as a parent, I am feeling very worried about the future outcome.” – Kenya Edmond, a Greenville County resident
“We’re all just kind of in limbo, hoping that they will unpause it.” – Mia Person, a Greenville County resident
“We’ve still got to be creative. I need to make this work. I don’t have anything else to fall back on, so I have to make it work. Closing is not an option … there are too many people depending on me to make it, from staff to families. We’re all they have.” – LaVonda Paul, owner and director of Small Impressions Child Development Center
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Federal funding formula
The Child Care and Development Fund serves as the primary funding source for the Child Care Scholarship Program in South Carolina. The amount of federal discretionary funding allocated to the state is based on a formula established by the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act.
The formula includes three factors:
- The state’s share of all children in the U.S. younger than age five
- The state’s share of children receiving free and reduced lunches at school
- The state’s per capita income
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Scholarship program qualifications
The South Carolina Department of Social Services is currently only considering applications for the Child Care Scholarship Program for families who fall under specific federally defined protected categories. These categories include:
- Families receiving or transitioning off the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program
- Families experiencing homelessness
- Families living in a domestic violence shelter
- Families with a child with a disability
- Families with an option or active child welfare case (foster care or family preservation)
- Families eligible for the SC First Steps 4K program
- Families in a Head Start eligible program
General qualifications for the Child Care Scholarship Program require that the parents or guardians must:
- Have one or more children between birth and 12 years of age
- Work at least 15 hours per week, attend school or participate in a training program
- Have a gross income level at or below 85% of the state median income level
Source: South Carolina Department of Social Services
