How to Get Fully Licensed as a Kinship Caregiver in South Carolina Within 90 Days

If a grandchild, niece, nephew, or other relative was placed with you by South Carolina DSS — or is about to be — you are inside a 90-day provisional window. Full licensure before that window closes is worth hundreds of dollars per month in board payments and protects the stability of the placement. Here is the step-by-step path to completing it.

South Carolina law under S.C. Code § 63-7-2330 allows DSS to place a child with a kinship caregiver on a provisional basis for up to 90 days while the full licensing process is completed. The provisional placement protects the child from being moved to a non-relative home while paperwork catches up. The financial implication is direct: provisional caregivers are not entitled to the monthly board payments that licensed kinship foster parents receive. Full licensure unlocks board payments of $670-$863/month per child (FY2024-2025 rates, increasing July 2025), plus Medicaid coverage, ABC child care vouchers, and WIC for children under five.

Getting through the process in 90 days is achievable. Missing it extends your unlicensed period by months.

Step 1: Call Your County DSS Office — Ask for Kinship Care Specifically (Day 1)

Do not use the general DSS intake line. Call your county DSS office and ask to be connected with the kinship licensing coordinator or the kinship foster care unit. These are different from the caseworker assigned to the child's case. You need two separate contacts: the child's caseworker (who manages the case plan, visitation, and court dates) and your kinship licensing coordinator (who manages your license application).

Get both names and direct contact information on day one. Write them down. These two people have different roles and will give you different information. Confusing them leads to missed steps.

If you don't know your county DSS office number, find it at dss.sc.gov/about/county-directory/.

Step 2: Start All Five Background Checks Immediately (Day 1-2)

This is the step that determines whether you complete licensure within 90 days or miss the window. Background checks take time, and out-of-state registry checks are the single most common cause of kinship licensing delays in South Carolina. Every day you wait to start them is a day added to your timeline.

Every adult household member (18 and older) needs all five of these:

1. SLED Criminal Check

• Apply online at catch.sled.sc.gov
• Cost: $25 per person
• Turnaround: 1-2 weeks
• Apply this week — today if possible

2. FBI Fingerprinting

• Schedule through IdentoGO (IdentoGO.com or 1-888-537-5427) — the state-authorized vendor for SC
• Cost: $24.95 per person
• Turnaround: 2-4 weeks
• Schedule your appointment this week

3. DSS Central Registry Check

• Your kinship licensing coordinator will help coordinate this one
• Cost: $8-25 (varies)
• Checks for substantiated child abuse or neglect findings in SC

4. Out-of-State Registry Checks

• Required for any adult household member who has lived outside SC in the past 5 years
• Must be requested from each state individually — your coordinator can provide request forms
• Turnaround: 4-12 weeks per state — this is the longest step
• Start immediately if applicable. Do not wait.

5. Sex Offender Registry

• SC and national sex offender registries
• Sometimes required for household members as young as 12
• Your coordinator manages the formal request

Critical insight: Out-of-state registry checks are routinely the bottleneck. A family with one adult who lived in Georgia five years ago must request a Georgia child abuse registry check. That request goes to Georgia's DCFS, which has its own processing timeline. Waiting even two weeks to start this can push the check past the 90-day window.

Step 3: Complete the Mutual Home Assessment Preparation (Week 1-2)

DSS conducts a Mutual Home Assessment — a faster version of the full home study used for traditional licensing — to verify your home meets basic safety standards. This assessment happens early in the kinship process. Prepare before it's scheduled.

Walk through your home and check these items against S.C. Regs. § 114-550 standards:

Fire Safety

• Smoke detector in every bedroom and on every level of the home
• Carbon monoxide detector near any fuel-burning appliance (gas stove, furnace)
• Kitchen fire extinguisher rated 2A:10BC (check the label — most store-bought kitchen extinguishers don't meet this rating)
• Documented fire drill (you need a log showing you've practiced an exit plan)

Medication Storage

• ALL medications — including over-the-counter items like Tylenol, vitamins, and cold medicine — must be stored in a locked container
• Prescription medications must also be locked
• Purchase a lockbox before the assessment if you don't have one

Firearm Storage

• Firearms must be stored in a locked safe or otherwise rendered inoperable (trigger locks)
• Ammunition must be stored separately in its own locked container
• Both the firearm and the ammunition must be inaccessible to children

Water Safety

• Water heater must be set at or below 120 degrees Fahrenheit
• Check your water heater's thermostat — many are factory-set higher
• Any pool, pond, ditch, or water hazard on the property must be enclosed by a 4-foot fence with a self-closing, self-latching, outward-swinging gate

Other Common Failure Points

• Peeling paint on interior or exterior surfaces (homes built before 1978 require lead paint verification if children under 6 will reside there)
• Exposed wiring or electrical hazards
• Home free of hazardous materials accessible to children (cleaning products, pesticides, solvents — must be locked or in inaccessible storage)
• Each child must have their own bed and adequate bedroom space (minimum 80 sq ft for a single occupant, 60 sq ft per child in shared rooms)

The South Carolina Foster Care Licensing Guide includes the full room-by-room inspection checklist so you can walk through every area before the assessor arrives.

Step 4: Gather Your Documentation (Week 1-3)

Compile these documents for all adults in the household:

Getting the medical exams scheduled early matters because physician appointments take time. Don't wait until week 6 to schedule physicals.

Step 5: Complete the Kinship Home Study (Weeks 3-8)

The Mutual Home Assessment includes both the physical inspection and psychosocial interviews. The interview component covers:

• Your relationship to the child and prior history of involvement in the child's life
• Your understanding of why the child was removed from the parent's home
• Your willingness to support the child's relationship with their birth parent (reunification is the system's primary goal)
• Your discipline philosophy (corporal punishment is prohibited in all South Carolina foster homes)
• Your household stability — relationships, support network, financial situation
• Your children's readiness to welcome a foster sibling (if you have other children at home)

The most important thing to understand going in: the kinship home study is evaluating your capacity to partner with the child welfare system — including supporting visitation with the birth parent and understanding the reunification mandate — not just your capacity to care for the child physically. Families who approach this as bureaucratic box-checking struggle more in interviews than families who genuinely engage with the question of what it means to be part of the child's professional care team.

Step 6: MAPP Training (Weeks 4-10)

South Carolina requires pre-service training through the MAPP curriculum — approximately 27-30 hours across nine sessions. For kinship caregivers in the provisional window, your county DSS kinship coordinator manages your training pathway. Ask specifically whether kinship caregivers can do a compressed or accelerated training cohort, as some counties have provisions for this given the urgency of the kinship situation.

Standard MAPP training runs one evening per week for nine weeks. If your DSS kinship coordinator can connect you with a cohort that has already begun and will accept a late enrollee, or if a condensed kinship training option is available in your county, that can be the difference between completing within 90 days or missing the window.

The 90-Day Timeline: Realistic Milestones

The tightest constraint is usually the background check timing plus MAPP training. Starting both on day one is the only way to run them in parallel rather than sequentially.

What the Waiver System Means for You

Under S.C. Code § 63-7-2330, DSS has authority to waive specific non-safety licensing requirements for kinship caregivers when a waiver is in the child's best interest. This is a meaningful advantage over the traditional CPA track.

Waivers can potentially apply to:

• Bedroom size requirements (in limited circumstances when kin placement is clearly preferable)
• Some non-safety regulatory elements where full compliance creates an unreasonable burden

Waivers cannot apply to:

• Absolute criminal history bars under S.C. Code § 63-7-2350 (murder, criminal sexual conduct, crimes against children, CDV, felony drug offenses)
• Central Registry findings of substantiated child abuse or neglect
• Core fire, medication, and weapons safety standards

Ask your kinship licensing coordinator about which waivers are available for your specific situation. Knowing early prevents you from spending weeks trying to achieve a standard that can actually be waived.

Frequently Asked Questions

What happens if I don't complete licensing within 90 days?

DSS can extend the provisional period in specific circumstances, but this is not guaranteed. If full licensure is not achieved within the provisional window and an extension is not granted, DSS must evaluate alternative placements for the child. The goal is to avoid this scenario entirely by starting background checks and the home study immediately.

Can my adult child who is the parent of the placed child remain living in my home?

Possibly — but this must be disclosed to DSS on day one. If the parent of the placed child lives in your home, they are subject to the same background clearances as any adult household member. Depending on the nature of the removal and the parent's history, DSS may impose conditions on the parent's presence in the home, or the placement may be reassessed. Transparency with your caseworker from the beginning is essential.

My adult child (the parent) has a criminal record. Does that automatically disqualify my application?

Not automatically. DSS reviews the specific offense and its nature. Absolute bars under S.C. Code § 63-7-2350 — murder, criminal sexual conduct, crimes against children, CDV, felony drug offenses — apply to any adult household member. For other offenses, DSS has some discretion based on the circumstances. Ask your kinship licensing coordinator directly about the specific offense. A pardon does not automatically remove a bar, but DSS may consider the circumstances.

Is there financial help during the provisional period?

Board payments are not standard during provisional licensure. DSS may be able to connect kinship caregivers with emergency financial assistance through community partner organizations or other state programs in specific circumstances. Talk to your caseworker about what emergency support is available in your county.

Do I need the full 30-hour MAPP training or is there a shorter kinship version?

South Carolina requires the full MAPP curriculum for kinship licensure. Some counties may offer condensed or intensive formats for kinship caregivers given the urgency of their situation. Ask your kinship licensing coordinator whether an accelerated cohort option exists in your county. Don't assume it does — but don't assume it doesn't without asking.

See more United States guides →