The Children’s Center is unique in that we offer sliding scale tuition, making it more affordable than the typical market rate centers.

PROGRAMS

For more than 80% of the over 150 families served by The Children’s Center, a sliding fee scale means parents can continue to remain in the workforce while their children receive high level, high-impact quality child care. With very few, if any, similar childcare options available, the Center is a crucial lynchpin in the framework of supportive resources that make it possible for workers in our community to remain employed and productive.

Early Education & Child Care

The Children’s Center’s multicultural, bilingual early childhood education program is provided five days a week, year-round, from 6:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Our goal is to provide a learning environment that enhances the physical, social, emotional, cognitive, linguistic and creative development of each child. The Center has adopted the new South Carolina Learning Standards for birth through five as our standard for lesson planning and skill development.

• Knowing the Children You Teach
• Building a Classroom Community
• Establishing a Structure for the Classroom
• Guiding Children’s Learning
• Assessing the Children’s Learning
• Building Partnerships with Families

In addition to The Creative Curriculum used in our Program, The Center has adopted the SC First Steps Environmental Rating Scales (IRTS, ECRS, SACRS) to ensure a quality environment for our youngsters.

ABC Program, Advocates for Better Child Care

The ABC Program supports low-income families with tuition assistance for affordable high-quality, high-impact educational early learning care. Some of these areas of support are listed as follows:

• Assists families with payment of child care services and fees. An eligible family will pay a small portion of the child care fee charged by the provider. The ABC Program will pay the remainder of the fee directly to the child care provider.
  Works with Child Care Providers to improve the quality of child care in the classroom and its environment.
• Registration for the ABC Program is done through the SC Department of Social Services.

USDA Program,
(United States Department of Agriculture)

The Child and Adult Care Food Program is a main component in supporting and improving the nutritional quality of meals and snacks for children at The Children’s Center.

Our staff recognize the importance of maintaining a healthy diet for our children. The Center’s mission is not only to ensure high impact education, but to provide positive early developmental support in all areas of our children’s lives including health. The USDA Program allows for the Center to provide the children a hot breakfast and lunch plus an afternoon snack each day at no cost to the parents, creating a more affordable child care program for our working families.

The goals of the program are to:

• Improve the diets of children by providing nutritious meals
• Help children develop good eating habit