Leading the Way for Early Childhood Education
As the industry’s largest private provider of early childhood education in the United States by center capacity, we play a significant role in helping to deliver the broader societal benefits achieved through high-quality education and care services. We actively monitor and measure actions taken to support our commitment to sustainability and social impact.
Our Social Impact
The cognitive, social, emotional, physical and language skills children develop in their early years serve as the foundation for lifelong learning, providing them with the tools they need to be successful in school and to thrive as they enter adulthood. Accessible, quality care leads to a more productive, engaged workforce creating benefits for employers, communities and the economy, according to a Bank of Montreal report on the education industry.
We have purposefully built a scaled early childhood education platform that enables us to reach more families and children than any other private childcare provider. We deliver our services through multiple delivery channels—in communities, onsite at employers, and onsite at schools through before- and after-school programs making our services broadly accessible.
- We operate nearly 1,500 early childhood education centers, the largest network of centers with the most licensed capacity in the United States, providing access to more children than any other provider.
- We are contracted for over 650 before- and after-school programs, providing an additional delivery channel to reach children and parents and support education and care needs outside of normal school hours.
- We design and continuously refine our proprietary curriculum to allow our teachers to address each child’s individual learning needs and meet them wherever they are in their academic development.
- We conduct norm-based assessments, leveraging third-party tools, twice a year at over 400 of our centers with a large, diverse population of children to objectively assess the impact of our educational offerings.
- We have implemented security practices to ensure appropriate physical, technical and administrative safeguards to protect personal data of children and their families and our employees.
Maintaining an Ethical Culture
When it comes to ethics, we know that the small decisions we make and little actions we take every day define KLC’s culture. If you’re facing an ethics issue, we encourage you to take action. Call our Ethics Support Line, hosted by a third-party hotline provider, EthicsPoint, at 1-844-889-4478 or submit a report online at KinderCare.EthicsPoint.com.
Our Environmental Impact
We seek out opportunities to educate children in a manner that can more broadly impact our society and surroundings, educating them on how to make a meaningful impact on our environment. We teach children to be thoughtful about their energy use and about the benefits of recycling. We take steps to manage our centers and infrastructure in a manner that minimizes our negative impact on the environment. As a result, we hope to influence each child’s understanding of, and appreciation for, our environment and to start them on a path to positively impact the environment throughout their life.
- We have implemented recycling programs at over 600 of our centers.
- We began installing energy management systems in our centers in 2016, and as of end of the second quarter of 2021 have installed them in over 185 centers. This has resulted in an over 14% reduction in annual energy usage at our centers, representing a saving of approximately 2.6 million kWh annually.
- We have installed LED lightbulbs in over 10% of our centers, representing savings of approximately 3.9 million kWh annually.
- We use reusable plates, cups, and utensils to reduce single use plastics.
- We reduced our vehicle fleet by approximately 20% to approximately 2,000 school buses resulting in a decrease in fuel usage of 11% since 2019.
Governance
As social impact is at the core of our business, accountability for corporate social responsibility matters starts at the highest level. The Nominating and Governance Committee of our board of directors will have specific oversight of corporate social responsibility matters pursuant to its charter and will receive regular updates from management. Our President will direct the development and implementation of our corporate social responsibility strategy and initiatives.
Serving Low-Income Families
More than 80% of parents with children under the age of five reported challenges in finding affordable, quality care, according to the Affordable Child Care Learning for All Families report published in 2018 by the Center for American Progress—a challenge most acutely evident in low-income families. Over 50% of families live in areas with an inadequate supply of licensed care capacity.
- We served over 32 million and 22 million meals to predominantly low-income children who qualified for the federal Child and Adult Care Food Program (“CACFP”) in 2019 and 2020, respectively.
- We helped families access public subsidies and stimulus funding amounting to revenues of $596 million and $582 million in 2019 and 2020, respectively, supporting access to our centers for thousands of children whose families otherwise may not have had the means to enroll. Over 40% of the children enrolled in our centers as of the end of the second quarter of 2021 were from low-income families.
- In 2020, we directly engaged with approximately 800 government agencies across the United States to assist low-income families to find and enroll their children in KinderCare centers and to access funding through subsidies and grants.
Providing Accessible & Inclusive Education
We strive to support families of all socioeconomic backgrounds with access by simplifying payment options and accommodating multiple methods of public and private payment. We have dedicated teams that assist families in utilizing public subsidies to facilitate access to centers for low-income families. In 2020, we directly engaged with approximately 800 government agencies across the United States to help low-income families secure funding for early childhood education through subsidies and grants.
- We maintain a dedicated Inclusion Services Team who works tirelessly to ensure our teachers and staff are able to welcome and support children of all backgrounds and abilities.
- We employ a diverse population of teachers and staff – 96% of our workforce identified as female, and 46% identified as minority, including 37% as Black or LatinX as of January 2, 2021.
- We established an Advisory Caucus comprised of leaders of color from across our organization to guide and inform our approach to diversity, equity and inclusion in our policies and practices.
