Child care slots are in short supply in the Upstate, leaving many families stuck on waiting lists for months on end and local providers exploring ways to meet the growing demand.
For Especially Children Child Development Center, it meant opening a second location in Greenville. The child care provider opened its first center in 2010 and serves 150 students. Wilatre Keenon, owner of Especially Children CDC, said about 600 parents are on their waiting list.
“People call over and over trying to get the kids in,” Keenon said. “I just wish I could help but you can’t help everybody.”
Keenon and her husband, Vernon, decided to open another location after a unique opportunity arose. The couple learned that The Sunshine House, another local child care provider, was closing its White Horse Road location.
The couple purchased The Sunshine House’s property in February and started renovating the existing facility in May. Especially Children CDC Too opened its doors in late July, adding 175 new child care slots to the region.
Licensing process
The number of child care slots depends on each center’s licensing capacity from the South Carolina Department of Social Services. All programs in South Carolina are required to be licensed or registered if they:
- Operate four or more hours each day
- Operate more than two days a week
- Care for children in a home or offer care for more than one family of no relation
According to the SC DSS, 40 new child care centers have been licensed in the Upstate so far in 2024.
To become a licensed child care center, a provider must attend an orientation, submit architectural plans to the chief fire marshal, submit a zoning approval letter, submit a licensing application and undergo a fire and health inspection.
Once an inspection is completed, a provisional license will be issued for the center. After operating for at least 45 days with at least 13 children, the state will revisit the site to do a full evaluation for a regular license.
Connelly-Anne Ragley, SC DSS chief external affairs officer, said the length of the process can vary. She advises anyone thinking of opening a child care center to understand what is expected.
“This comes down to health and safety,” Ragley said.
The number of children a child care center can enroll is also determined by the number of staff. The SC DSS sets specific staff-to-child ratios. If a child care center is understaffed, then it cannot enroll as many children.
Read more about the child care industry’s employment crisis
New SC grant program offered for child care providers
Some providers, such as Brookwood Preschool Academy near Mauldin, decide to expand their license capacity to add more child care slots. Brookwood Preschool Academy, which operates at Brookwood Church, recently expanded from serving 125 children to 205 children. Five more infant and toddler classrooms were created and 20 more staff members were added to accommodate the increase.
Renee LaPierre, the center’s director, said growing community need drove the decision to expand the number of classrooms.
“There were a lot of hoops to jump through,” she said. “There was a lot more than I thought that went into it like as far as having to get permits and fire marshal approval.”
The expansion cost around $75,000 to complete. Egress doors were added to the five additional classrooms, a requirement by the SC DSS. The center also purchased additional supplies and equipment for the new rooms.
Available resources
Resources are available in South Carolina to help providers go through the licensing process and open a child care center.
For example, South Carolina Child Care Resource & Referral provides free services to early child care providers and families across the state. The organization is housed within the University of South Carolina and is grant-funded through the SC DSS Early Care and Education Division.
Through the resource and referrals program, child care providers can receive one-on-one training and technical assistance from a quality coach. The organization has provided business startup support to 267 new programs in South Carolina over the last 12 months.
Keenon said a quality-care coach assisted them with the opening of Especially Children CDC Too.
Linda Caraway-Doherty, community engagement manager for South Carolina Child Care Resource & Referral, said the organization works in coordination with SC DSS licensing to help providers navigate the process.
“We play a part in helping a program open,” Caraway-Doherty said. “It can be anything from helping them write their policies, how they’re going to hire staff … to purchasing materials.”
Some new child care providers might decide to open a center under a franchise due to the resources and assistance they offer. Bill Hyatt, the owner of The Goddard School of Simpsonville and The Goddard School of Greenville, believes it is easier to open a child care center under a franchise.
“Goddard has a lot of resources,” Hyatt said. “There’s an opening process that we go through from selecting the type of furniture to security standards (to) the curriculum.”
Hyatt and his wife, Melanie, are in the process of opening their third private academic preschool location in the Upstate. A new $7 million center on Pelham Road in Greenville is under construction and scheduled to open in March 2025.
The couple also plans to open a fourth site of The Goddard School off Harrison Bridge Road in Simpsonville in 2025. Hyatt said that between both schools, they will be adding 500 new child care spots in the region.
“We do see that there’s not enough spots available for everybody and that’s unfortunate,” Hyatt said. “So that was one thing that we wanted to do was make sure that we help families with their child care needs. Adding another location definitely should help relieve some of the stress on families.”
New child care licensed centers in South Carolina in 2024
| Month | Family Child Care Homes | Child Care Centers | Total |
| January | 13 | 10 | 23 |
| February | 6 | 7 | 13 |
| March | 13 | 9 | 22 |
| April | 11 | 13 | 24 |
| May | 9 | 6 | 15 |
| June | 11 | 10 | 21 |
| July | 18 | 19 | 37 |
| Total | 81 | 74 | 155 |
Source: South Carolina Department of Social Services
New child care licensed centers by South Carolina region in 2024
- Midlands: 56
- Upstate: 40
- Lowcountry: 31
- Pee Dee: 28
Source: South Carolina Department of Social Services
Staff-to-child ratio
| Age | Staff-to-Child-Ratios |
| Birth to 1 year | 1:5 |
| 1 to 2 years | 1:6 |
| 2 to 3 years | 1:8 |
| 3 to 4 years | 1:12 |
| 4 to 5 years | 1:17 |
| 5 to 6 years | 1:20 |
| 6 to 12 years | 1:23 |
Source: South Carolina Department of Social Services
The post Upstate child care providers work to meet growing demand appeared first on GREENVILLE JOURNAL.