South Carolina's 2019 College- and Career-Ready Social Studies Standards organize K-12 content through inquiry-based learning across US History, World History, Government/Civics, and Economics courses. The required half-credit Government course covers constitutional foundations, the three branches of federal government, federalism and state/local government, civil rights and liberties, political participation and elections, and US foreign policy. The James B. Edwards Civics Education Initiative (SC Code 59-29-240, enacted 2015) requires all public high school students to take — but not necessarily pass — a USCIS naturalization-based civics test as part of the mandatory US Government course, effective beginning with the class of 2016-17. Beginning in the 2026-2027 school year, the test format changes to 20 questions selected from the USCIS 2025 Naturalization Test Bank. Standards are on a seven-year revision cycle; a cyclical review of the 2019 standards was initiated in March 2026.