Safety & records · South Carolina
Reading a daycare's record in South Carolina
South Carolina publishes inspection records through SC Child Care Search (DSS Child Care Licensing / ABC Quality). This page walks you to the record, decodes its vocabulary from the state's own definitions, and states what the archive cannot tell you. We never name, rate, or score a center.
First, the money
Records are half the decision. The other half is whether you can get help paying — run the free check for South Carolina before you fall in love with a center you cannot fund.
The portal
SC Child Care Search (DSS Child Care Licensing / ABC Quality)
Provider search with inspection reports, violations with dates, corrective actions, and the ABC Quality rating.
How South Carolina grades what it finds
Citations by SC Code Regs. 114-500 series; narrative deficiency findings, no class system confirmed.
Words like these are decoded, term by term, in the records decoder — always from the state's own published definitions, and always with the correction status given the same weight as the finding.
If you need to report something
DSS Child Care Licensing by phone or online form; abuse and neglect to 1-888-227-3487.
Read any record in this order
- The license status first — active, conditional, or under action.
- The findings, newest to oldest, watching for the same rule cited twice.
- The correction status on each finding — corrected, corrected on site, plan accepted, or still open. It carries the same weight as the finding.
- The blind spots above: what this archive structurally cannot show you.
Portal facts checked October 2026. Only the state agency's record is the record — this page is a map to it, not a copy of it.