COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina Department of Social Services has launched a new waitlist for families seeking childcare scholarships following the expiration of federal funding.
The assistance program lost funding after federal COVID-19 pandemic relief dollars ended in December, leaving many parents without financial support for daily care.
The new waitlist was established to queue eligible parents if additional scholarship funding becomes available in the future.
To offset the loss of federal relief, agency officials requested $20 million in additional annual funding from state lawmakers.
However, members of the South Carolina Legislature rejected the request, leaving the agency to operate within its pre-pandemic budget constraints.
Ashley Morrison, a South Carolina parent of a kindergartener and a 2-year-old, lost her childcare subsidy at the end of the year. “Our family lost our childcare voucher, and so I have a child at home full time, which keeps me from getting work,” Morrison said.
Without childcare coverage, basic employment activities have become inaccessible. “You can’t even go to job interviews with a 2-year-old on your hip,” Morrison said.
Childcare providers across the state are also experiencing financial strain from the loss of voucher support.
Joy Dickerson, a local day care owner, reported that her facility has lost half of its client base following the expiration of the funding. “Yeah, we need the roads, nice roads, but childcare is important because the children are our future,” Dickerson said.
Connelly-Anne Ragley, a spokesperson for the South Carolina Department of Social Services, explained that adding a name to the waitlist does not guarantee families will receive financial aid.
“We’re trying to right-size the program because we have to get back to where the program was before COVID-19. This is really dependent on the amount of money that is available to the agency,” Ragley said.
Ragley described the process of scaling back the scholarship program as personally challenging given its widespread social and economic impact.
“This has been one of the toughest things that I’ve dealt with personally. I cried writing the press release because I know how important childcare is to not only a family and their well-being but also to the workforce and to communities,” Ragley said.
State officials hope that tracking family registration through the waitlist will provide concrete evidence of the widespread need for childcare subsidies.
“We’re hoping we could use this data to translate and to show lawmakers both at the state level and at the federal level the need for scholarship support in South Carolina,” Ragley said.
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