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COLUMBIA — A bill allowing daycares to hire employees without a high school diploma is nearing the finish line after a legislators agreed on a compromise Wednesday.
The bill would create a new hiring pool for daycares struggling to hire enough workers, while also opening the door for people with disabilities who might not have a high school diploma to get jobs, its chief sponsor, Sen. Katrina Shealy, told the SC Daily Gazette.
“What we’re trying to do is get more workers in child care centers,” said the Lexington Republican, who led the House-Senate negotiating panel.
Daycares would be able to hire workers with a certificate of completion or employability credential, which students with disabilities can receive to show they are able to enter the workforce despite not finishing all the academic requirements required to get their diploma.
If the bill becomes law, applicants would also no longer need at least six months of experience working in child care to get a job in child care, without being required to spend the first six months on the job shadowing an experienced caregiver at the daycare.
That requirement makes it more difficult for applicants to find a job and daycares to get fully staffed, legislators said.
Instead, under the compromise, inexperienced new workers would need to complete 15 hours of health and safety training within 30 days of starting their new job. Until they do, a supervisor must monitor them to make sure they’re meeting health and safety standards.
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The House and Senate each passed the bill unanimously earlier this year, though their versions were slightly different.
The Legislature is set to return later this month for another special session. A vote in both chambers to approve the compromise agreed to Wednesday would send the bill to Gov. Henry McMaster’s desk.
Staffing shortages
Because daycares must have a certain ratio of employees to children to keep their license, fewer workers means fewer children they can legally enroll.
That, in turn, means parents have fewer options for child care, making it more difficult for them to go back to work, said Department of Social Services spokeswoman Connelly-Anne Ragley.
“We’ve heard from providers first and foremost that employment was one of the biggest barriers to getting folks into the workforce,” Ragley said.
House Education Chairwoman Shannon Erickson owns three daycares in Beaufort County. One of them — Hobbit Hill, Too in Beaufort— has enough space to accommodate 126 children. But she said it can take no more than 88 at the moment because she can’t hire enough staff.
“It’s not the space of the building,” the Beaufort Republican said. “It’s the number of staff.”
In 2021, 40% of children in the state under the age of 5 lived in an area where child care was scarce, according to a state study. The COVID-19 pandemic made the problem worse, causing daycares to shutter, which also helped drive up prices, Shealy said.
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The Department of Social Services has been trying to entice more workers through the SC BOO$T program, which gives bonuses to daycare workers making $30 per hour or less. The bonuses, funded through federal pandemic relief, range from $2,200 to $4,000 depending on a worker’s experience, plus up to $1,000 extra for people working with infants and toddlers.
Since the program started in February, it has distributed $6.1 million to more than 6,600 workers, according to the department. Applications are still open, and the goal is to get state money to continue the program once the federal money runs out, Ragley said.
More jobs
Advocates say the bill would also create more jobs for people with intellectual disabilities, who may not be able to earn all the academic credits needed for a high school diploma or pass the tests needed to earn a GED diploma.
That severely limits what types of jobs they can get out of high school, according to the advocacy group AbleSC. In 2022, about 40% of people with disabilities in South Carolina had a job, compared to 77% without a disability, according to the Center for Research on Disability.
“Unfortunately, this requirement limits the hiring pool and unfairly discriminates against qualified disabled workers,” according to a statement from the South Carolina Access and Independence Network, which represents disability rights organizations.
This bill would create more options for them to work. Having their own income, in turn, can make it easier for people with disabilities to live independently, the group wrote.
A 2017 state law allowed students with disabilities to earn an “employability credential” intended to help them get a job beyond high school. Credits are earned through on-the-job training and career preparation courses, to include “soft skills” such as interviewing.
The law took effect with students entering ninth grade in 2018-19, so the first state credentials were awarded to the Class of 2022. Previously, students who couldn’t earn the necessary 24 credits for a diploma could only receive a state certificate of attendance — no matter what level they reached before aging out of K-12 schools.
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