When children experience high quality care and education from birth through age five, they are more likely to succeed in kindergarten and beyond. First Steps increases access, quality, and professional development in early childhood programs statewide.
Early Care & Education
Quality EnhancementIntensive support to child care centers, Head Start and preschool classrooms to improve quality
Early Care & Education
Quality CountsQuality Counts is a community-based child care quality improvement strategy, designed to build and sustain high quality in early care and education programs.
Early Care & Education
Child Care ScholarshipsEligible children receive tuition-free enrollment at quality child care centers
Early Care & Education
Child CareProviding local families with access to high-quality early care and education.
Early Care & Education
Early Head StartNationally, Early Head Start programs serve over 160,000 children and pregnant women annually.
Early Care & Education
Training and Professional DevelopmentCertified and registered training hours for the early childhood workforce
Early Care & Education
First Steps 4KFirst Steps 4K offers free, full-day four-year-old kindergarten to qualifying children in South Carolina. We partner with more than 250 licensed child care centers and private schools across the state, making it easy for families to find a high-quality program that meets their needs.
Early Care & Education
Enhanced Early EducationThe Enhanced Early Education strategy seeks to enhance education services offered by early childhood classrooms.
These are our Early Care & Education Programs
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