Outline of South Carolina South Carolina State Profile

  • Licensing: In South Carolina, child care licensing regulations do not require child care facilities to engage the services of child care health consultants (CCHCs).
  • Auspices: The SC Department of Health and Environmental Control, MCH Bureau, Division of Women and Children’s Services housed the former CCHC efforts. There are no CCHC efforts at this time.

History and Development

South Carolina was a recipient of a Healthy Child Care America (HCCA) grant which afforded DHEC an opportunity to participate in the development of an initiative to promote early care and education (ECE) within the state. With the support of this grant, a nurse consultant was hired who was required to participate in CCHC training at the National Training Institute for Child Care Health Consultants (NTI), provide this training in local communities, as requested, and to convene the interagency child care workgroup. At the time HCCA was being implemented, the Bureau of Maternal and Child Health was actively involved in the development of medical home partnerships. They were also instrumental in partnering with other entities responsible for the early care and development of young children. A public/private partnership which included DHEC, the Department of Education, South Carolina's version of Healthy Families, Parents as Teachers, Head Start, the state Medicaid agency, the Department of Social Service (the licensing agency for the ABC voucher program), and the medical community, resulted in the state moving toward the promotion of systems of care for children in a more formalized, structured way. When the HCCA grant ended and the nurse consultant was no longer funded, the agency sought to formalize efforts through two HRSA grants, Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems Grant (ECCS) and the State Implementation Grant for Community Systems Integration for Care for Children with Special Health Care Needs.

At the present time, South Carolina has expanded involvement in improving integration of systems care with the help of these two grants, while promoting a comprehensive approach to ECE.

Challenges and Lessons Learned

  • Sustaining Efforts: The nurse consultant position dedicated to training and provision of consultation under the CCHC effort was eliminated when grant funding was not sustained.

Ingredients for Success

  • Sustainability Plans: The value of sustainability planning has become visible to stakeholders. The loss of dedicated positions once grant–funding ceases demonstrates the need for cross system collaborative thinking for effort sustainability.

Moving Forward

  • Building the CCHC Network: No current plans to build a CCHC Network.

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Information as of August 2007