South Carolina Legislature

HOUSE LEGISLATIVE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE


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Agency Information


Agency's Strategic Budgeting & Spending

Below are links, by year, to Excel documents that include details about how much money the agency budgeted to accomplish its strategic plan and how much it actually spent. Also included below is the agency's strategic budget for the current year. This information was provided by the agency in its Annual Restructuring Report, Program Evaluation, Request for Information, or Accountability Report.

The Strategic Budgeting - Details Excel document includes information about the amount of money the agency budgeted toward accomplishing each objective in its strategic plan, as well as the amount budgeted toward "unrelated purposes." An "unrelated purpose" is money the agency was directed to spend that was not related to an objective in the agency's strategic plan. (i.e. pass through, etc.). This document also includes details on the amounts budgeted to each objective and unrelated purpose by source of funds.

Disclaimer: The amount the agency budgeted and spent per goal and objective are estimates from the agency. The Committee informed the agency that it understood the information would be estimates but that it was acceptable as long as the agency had a logical basis, which it could explain, as to how it reached the numbers it provided.

Click on any of the links below to go to the applicable part of this webpage:
  • Amount Available to Budget
  • Where Agency Budgeted the Funds
  • Budgeting & Spending Documents
  • Spending Details
  • Additional links related to information on spending

    • Money Budgeted for Current Goals, Objectives and Unrelated Purposes (2015-16)

    Amount Available to Budget: $52,426,786

    General v. Other v. Federal
  • State General Fund = $38,591,999 (73.6% of total)
  • State Other Fund = $0 (0% of total)
  • Federal = $10,464,142 (20% of total)
  • Private = $3,370,645 (6.4% of total)

    • Recurring v. Non-recurring
  • Recurring = $49,056,141 (93.6% of total)
  • State General Fund = $38,591,999
  • Federal = $10,464,142
  • Non-recurring (one-time) = $3,370,645 (6.4% of total)
  • Private = $3,370,645

    • Where Agency Budgeted the Funds:

    [NOTE: The First Steps Board of Trustees is engaged in a strategic planning process through which new strategy and objective language, measures and timelines will be established over the coming months for implementation in FY17. The Strategies and Objectives listed below reflect the current operation of the agency.]

    Goal 1 - $39,231,469 - Increase access to quality early childhood programs and resources.

    Strategy 1.1 - $18,352,864 - Expand the availability and quality of the First Steps 4K Program in private preschool settings.

  • Objective 1.1.1 - Increase the number of students and eligible preschool providers participating in the First Steps 4K Program.

  • Objective 1.1.2 - Ensure on-site monitoring and technical assistance of First Steps 4K providers twice monthly.

  • Objective 1.1.3 - Ensure that the early literacy competencies of all First Steps 4K providers are assessed using the Teaching Strategies GOLD as required by law.

    • Strategy 1.2 - $5,331,171 - Implement High Quality parent education and home visitation strategies (Parents as Teachers, Countdown to Kindergarten, etc.) in communities identifying these services as a need.

  • Objective 1.2.1 - Ensure that home visitation clients are served within model best-practice guidelines related to the intensity and duration of services.

  • Objective 1.2.2 - Ensure that 60% or more of home visitation client families possess two or more school readiness risk factors.

  • Objective 1.2.3 - Measure client family outcomes using the Keys to Interactive Parenting Scale and Adult-Child Interactive Reading Inventory.

    • Strategy 1.3 $3,554,114 - Implement child care quality enhancement strategies in communities identifying these services as a need.

  • Objective 1.3.1 - Ensure that quality enhancement client centers are served within First Steps' guidelines for intensity and duration of services.

  • Objective 1.3.2 - Increase the quality of client centers as measured by the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scales.

    • Strategy 1.4 $11,993,320 - Enhance the quality and timeliness of BabyNet service delivery and payments.
  • Objective 1.4.1 - Increase staffing designed to improve response time for incoming BabyNet clients.

  • Objective 1.4.2 - Improve the functioning and compatibility of the BRIDGES BabyNet data system.

    • Goal 2 - $25,000 - Enhance leadership development and capacity building.

    Strategy 2.1 - $20,000 - Support the needs and governance capacity of local First Steps Partnerships.

  • Objective 2.1.1 - Complete site visits to each local partnership by August 1, 2015.

    • Strategy 2.2 - 5,000 - Develop and distribute parent-friendly means of communicating the importance of early childhood development.

  • Objective 2.2.1 - Develop and distribute an interagency description of the ready five year old.

  • Objective 2.2.2 - Launch a community education initiative designed to promote the school readiness in South Carolina.

    • Goal 3 - $50,000 - Strengthen interagency accountability and public-private collaboration.

    Strategy 3.1 - $50,000 - Improve interagency communication and collaboration.

  • Objective 3.1.1 - Seat and convene a collaborative interagency group comprised by First Steps and DSS staff designed to clarify and coordinate regulatory and quality enhancement efforts supporting SC child care providers.

  • Objective 3.1.2 - Convene the Chairmen's Summit on Early Childhood Education, as a collaborative interagency effort comprised by each of the entities serving on the First Steps Board of Trustees.

    • Outside of Agency's Goals and Strategies
    Early Education, School Transition and Health - $4,670,891

    Early Head Start - $3,891,142

    Policy and Accountability and Local Partnership Support - $4,558,284

    Budgeting and Spending Documents
  • 2015-16 Strategic Budgeting - Details (Excel Spreadsheet)
  • First Steps Programs - Funding Summary provided by First Steps (October 2015)
  • Financial Audit of First Steps presentation provided by First Steps (June 30, 2015)
  • Financial Statements for First Steps provided by First Steps(2014-15)
  • Administrative Costs by County - Overhead is limited to 8% - provided by First Steps(2014)
  • Cash Balances provided by First Steps (2011-2015)
  • Expenditures by Local Partnership and Program provided by First Steps (2001-2014)
  • Fund Leverage Report for all 46 Local Partnerships provided by First Steps(June 30, 2014)
  • Local Partnership Funding information provided by First Steps
  • SC Enterprise Information System (SCEIS) information provided by First Steps

    • Spending Details

    In March 2008, the Comptroller General unveiled the state's first Spending Transparency Website. According to the Comptroller General's webpage, the goal is to shine a light on spending, thus improving the quality of government and giving taxpayers click-of-a-mouse access to details about how their money is spent. This information is available at www.cg.sc.gov/fiscaltransparency.

  • Annual Summary Spending
  • Includes annual totals by state agency, broken-down by all categories of spending.
  • Monthly Detailed Spending
  • Includes travel, contractual services, and supplies for all reporting periods prior to July 2010. Beginning July 2010, spending for all categories is being made available.
  • The spending details you see are each agency's monthly disbursements, including any payments made on its monthly charge card statements. For those charge card payments, the name of the payee (the party the check is written to) will be the issuer of the card (Bank of America) rather than the individual merchants who accepted the credit card whenever the agency bought from them during the month. The various merchants or vendors the agency bought from can be viewed by clicking on the link below called "Monthly Charge Card Usage" and then selecting the matter of interest and agency.
  • Spending by Vendor
  • Allows you to perform an alphabetic search by vendor for payments made by all state agencies.

    • Additional Links to Related Information on Spending
  • Comptroller General's Fiscal Transparency
  • State Contracts
  • Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports (Current and Prior Years)
  • Monthly General Fund Revenue Reports
  • State Fiscal Accountability Authority Meetings (Live-Streamed and Archived by SC ETV)


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