South Carolina Child Care Voucher for Kinship Caregivers

The Current Situation: General Applications Are Paused

South Carolina's Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), historically called the SC Voucher program, paused new applications from the general population on December 1, 2025 due to funding constraints. If you are a grandparent or relative caregiver trying to apply through the standard SC Working Families pathway, you will hit a closed door.

But kinship caregivers have a separate entrance.

Priority Groups That Can Still Apply

Several categories remain open even during the pause:

• Children placed with relatives under child protective or preventive services authorization — if SCDSS placed the child with you or authorized the arrangement as part of a child welfare case, you qualify for a child care scholarship regardless of your income. Copayments are waived entirely.
• TANF (Family Independence) recipients — if the child receives child-only Family Independence cash assistance, that alone creates eligibility.
• Licensed foster and kinship foster parents with children placed by SCDSS.
• Children with special needs who meet program criteria.

The key distinction: the general population pause does not apply to caregivers who entered the system through SCDSS child welfare channels. If your arrangement started because DSS removed the child from the parent and placed them with you, the child care scholarship pathway should still be open.

Standard Eligibility (When Applications Reopen)

When general enrollment resumes, standard requirements include:

• Household income at or below 85% of the State Median Income ($64,068 annually for a family of three in 2026)
• Caregiver must be working, in school, or in a training program for at least 15 hours per week
• Child care must be provided by an approved ABC Quality provider

Family Independence child-only payments and kinship care payments are specifically excluded from the income calculation. If the child receives $229 per month in TANF, that does not count against the $64,068 income cap.

How to Check Your Status

Contact your local SCDSS office and ask specifically about the kinship or child welfare priority pathway. The general application portal may show a pause message, but referral pathways through your caseworker operate differently.

The SCDSS Kinship Navigator program can also help — county coordinators know which referral channels are currently active and can initiate the paperwork from the child welfare side.

What the Scholarship Covers

The SC Voucher scholarship pays directly to your approved child care provider. Copayments depend on household income for standard applicants. For kinship foster and protective placements, copayments are waived.

The scholarship can cover full-time or part-time care at any provider participating in South Carolina's ABC Quality Rating system.

Getting the Full Roadmap

Child care assistance is one piece of a larger benefits picture for kinship caregivers in South Carolina. The South Carolina Kinship Financial Help Guide covers child care alongside TANF, Medicaid, SNAP, and KinGAP — including how each program's income rules interact and which benefits you can stack.

See more South Carolina guides →