DSP training standards in South Carolina were built by the Department of Disabilities and Special Needs (DDSN), which merged into the new Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities (BHDD) under Act 3 of 2025, effective April 28, 2025 — DDSN's functions now operate as BHDD's Office of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. The DDSN directives that define DSP training remain in force during the migration, so providers should keep following them while watching for reissued BHDD versions.

The core requirement is Directive 567-01-DD. Before working independently, direct support staff complete orientation and pre-service training covering confidentiality, supervision of individuals, abuse and neglect prevention and reporting, first aid, fire and disaster procedures, understanding the disabilities of the people served, signs and symptoms of illness and seizures, and basic teaching strategies. Competency is verified through written tests and skills checks — and staff with at least two years of relevant experience may test out of portions rather than re-sit the classroom content.

The ongoing requirement is concrete: 10 hours of additional job-related training every year for direct support staff. Because the annual obligation is an hour count rather than a fixed topic list, providers have latitude in what fills it — and an LMS that accumulates each DSP's 10-hour year automatically turns an audit-day scramble into a report.

Two areas are gated to approved formats. Crisis intervention: under Directive 567-04-DD, staff who may need to physically intervene must hold pre-skill certification from one of nine approved commercial systems — Mandt, CPI, PCM, Therapeutic Options, PCS, TCI, Safety-Care, Ukeru, or Aegis. Medication: Directive 603-13-DD establishes the Medication Technician Certification — at least 16 hours of classroom instruction plus practicum and supervised medication passes, an 85% exam standard, and instruction by RNs, LPNs, pharmacists, or physicians. Notably, any curriculum matching the state's outline can be approved in writing on a three-year cycle, so provider agencies can run their own med-tech programs.

The delivery model is provider choice against a state minimum outline. The directives explicitly encourage providers to "embellish" the state's curriculum "or design their own," and give agencies wide latitude in sourcing — there is no statewide training vendor contract or state-run LMS for DSP training. That makes South Carolina an open market with unusually well-specified minimums.

Training and eTracking Solutions provides online DSP training built for South Carolina's directive framework — courses mapped to the 567-01-DD pre-service topic areas, content for the 10-hour annual cycle, automatic hour tracking per DSP, and documentation of tests and skills checks in the form state reviews look for. Gated items — the nine approved crisis systems and the RN-led Medication Technician program — are tracked alongside so certifications and three-year curriculum approvals never lapse quietly. As BHDD reissues directives post-reorganization, TeTS tracks the changes so South Carolina customers' pathways stay current without re-research on their end.