KinderCare Learning Companies, Inc. (KLC) Business

Item 1. Business

General

KinderCare Learning Companies, Inc. (the "Company," "KinderCare," "we," "us" and "our") is a leading private provider of high-quality early education and child care services ("ECE") in the United States. We are a mission-driven organization, rooted in a commitment to providing all children with the very best start in life. We serve children ranging from six weeks to 12 years of age across our footprint.

We operate a national network of community-based centers, employer-sponsored programs and before- and after-school sites. Our proprietary curriculum is supported by third-party assessment tools that measure school readiness outcomes. We voluntarily pursue national accreditation at our centers and onsite programs.

We report on a 52- or 53-week fiscal year comprised of 13- or 14-week fourth quarters, respectively, with the fiscal year ending on the Saturday closest to December 31. Our fiscal 2025 was a 53-week year ending on January 3, 2026. References in this Annual Report on Form 10-K to financial or operational results for fiscal 2025 refer to our fiscal year ending January 3, 2026.

Our Brands

We compete in the U.S. market for ECE services, including before- and after-school services for school-aged children.

The market for center-based ECE services is highly fragmented according to Child Care Aware of America. We estimate that the top five providers, including KinderCare, represented approximately 6% of total capacity as of January 3, 2026.

We are a leader in early childhood education and care across our three consumer-facing brands designed to address key parent demographics:

•
KinderCare Learning Centers (“KCLC”) is a leading provider of community-based early child care and education in the United States. As of January 3, 2026 KCLC operated 1,555 centers with a capacity to serve approximately 200,000 children, of which 77 are employer-based centers. In fiscal 2025 we opened 44 KCLC centers through green fields and acquisitions and closed 18 KCLC centers. KCLC comprised 88% of fiscal 2025 revenue.

•
Crème School is a premium provider of community-based early child care and education with 46 schools across 15 states and a capacity for serving over 10,000 children as of January 3, 2026. Crème School is differentiated by its early education model that keeps children stimulated and excited to learn through enrichment programs such as S.T.E.M. Lab, Art Studio, Digital Tech Lab and more. Crème School comprised 4% of fiscal 2025 revenue.

•
Champions is a leading private provider of before- and after-school programs for children ages 5-12 in the United States, which also includes summer camp programs. Our outsourced model provides an attractive value proposition to schools and districts. We provide staff, teachers and curriculum to deliver high-quality supplemental education and care at 1,153 sites as of January 3, 2026. Champions comprised 8% of fiscal 2025 revenue.

Additionally, we provide customized family care benefits for organizations, including care for young children on or near the site where their parents work, tuition benefits, and backup care where KinderCare programs are located. Employers increasingly recognize the benefits of offering employees access to flexible, high-quality, affordable ECE options through either a tuition benefits program or as backup care. We believe long-term trends and evolving work styles are driving a preference for flexible ECE solutions with care options both on-site at corporate offices and in the communities in which employees live.

As of January 3, 2026, we operated 77 onsite employer-sponsored centers and had relationships with over 1,000 employers. Our ability to offer both onsite centers, as well as access to our network of programs, provides flexibility and accessibility to a broad range of employees.

Our Strategy

Our operating strategy is designed to deliver a high-quality, outcomes-driven, education experience for every child and family we serve across all our centers and sites. This self-reinforcing strategy is anchored in four pillars:

1

•
Educational Excellence. We leverage our proprietary curriculum combined with third-party assessment tools and voluntary accreditation to deliver a high-quality educational experience and provide objective validation of the quality and impact of our programs.

•
People & Engagement. We utilize a proprietary, data-driven approach to attract, hire and develop exceptional talent. Our internal surveys consistently demonstrate that a more engaged workforce leads to better financial performance of our centers.

•
Health & Safety. We strive to consistently adhere to strict procedures across all of our centers to provide a healthy, safe environment for our children and our workforce and to deliver confidence and peace of mind to families. Our procedures address both the physical and mental health of children and are informed by input from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other third-party experts.

•
Operations & Growth. We consistently pursue operational excellence and believe that enables us to deliver profitable growth and to fund consistent reinvestment into our service offerings. Our technology platform closely monitors activity across all centers and sites and allows us to stay connected with families on a daily basis through digital channels.

Moreover, we intend to extend our position as a leading private ECE provider in the United States through key growth strategies, as follows:

Increase revenues through improved occupancy and consistent price increases.

We seek to increase same-center revenues through enrollment growth and tuition rate adjustments. Enrollment initiatives include brand marketing, public relations, digital and direct marketing campaigns and local referral activity.

As a scaled provider, we believe we are positioned to benefit from growth in demand for early childhood education services. Our national platform and operating infrastructure enable us to serve families supported by public subsidy funding and to offer a range of program formats, including accredited centers and flexible care options.

Expand footprint through greenfield development and strategic acquisitions.

We continue to expand our center footprint into new communities and at additional employer locations through greenfield center openings and through acquisition of centers from other providers. Since fiscal 2018, we have added 425 centers to our network through acquisitions and new greenfield center openings. In fiscal 2025, we added 46 centers to our network through acquisitions and new greenfield center openings.

We maintain a robust pipeline of new center opportunities and employ a disciplined and rigorous approach in selecting which centers to open or acquire. All potential new centers are evaluated to assess: local market trends and dynamics, overlap with existing KinderCare centers, the competitive landscape within a given market, and the performance of other existing providers in the market. Prior to committing to a new center addition, a cross-functional team, including key members of our executive leadership, evaluates the opportunity and reviews a detailed financial plan for the proposed addition to ensure the investment meets our internal return objectives.

We utilize dedicated, specialized teams to oversee the development, opening and/or addition of a new center. These teams are deeply involved in all centers that we add to our network – whether community-based or employer sponsored, greenfield or acquisition. This approach creates a scalable, repeatable and highly efficient process while ensuring we are creating the best experience for families and center staff.

Develop and grow adjacent revenue streams and service offerings.

Supporting services adjacent to our ECE business provides diversification and drives incremental revenue. Our business-to-business offerings, including tuition benefits programs and employer-sponsored centers, leverage established employer relationships. These offerings are positioned for growth as employers increasingly recognize the importance of supporting employees’ access to quality early childhood education. In the before- and after-school programs market we have contracts with approximately 2% of the nearly 64,000 elementary schools in the United States, providing significant opportunity to continue to grow our footprint.

Adapt to changes in seasonal demand for child care and other services.

Enrollments at centers and before- and after-school sites are generally higher in the spring and fall back-to-school period and lower during the summer and calendar year-end holidays when families may be on vacation or utilizing alternative child care

2

arrangements. As a result, revenue at centers and sites may decline during the third quarter, which overlaps with most of the summer season. To adapt to the changes in seasonal demand, centers offer summer programs and Champions offers day camps for school-age children during the summer and calendar year-end holidays.

Drive enrollment through brand-led, relationship-driven marketing.

KinderCare is one of the most recognized brands in our industry. Leveraging our national brand and localized center teams, we use a clearly defined relationship-driven approach to marketing to generate brand awareness, inquiries and enrollments.

To drive consumer awareness, we align marketing and PR campaigns to timely topics, nationally and locally, including industry leadership and advocacy, health and safety best practices and parenting guidance. Given the importance of online reviews, we employ a continuous outreach program to families to increase the number of available reviews.

We employ seasonal marketing campaigns to fuel inquiries. Our digital delivery channels include display ads, paid social media ads and email campaigns to prospective, enrolled and lapsed families. Our websites receive approximately 13 million visitors annually and we continuously refine our national and individual center landing pages to optimize organic search traffic and convert paid ad clicks to inquiries. In fiscal 2025, we incurred $23.9 million in advertising costs.

Access operational funding and advance industry advocacy through government programs.

We receive various forms of federal, state, and local governmental funding to support our operations and serve more families including reimbursements for food costs through the federal Child and Adult Food Care Program as well as grants for capital purchases, teacher compensation, and other center operating costs. In addition, we proactively work with prospective and current families to help them access public subsidy funding. As a market leader, we believe we are well positioned to advocate for continued and increased government support for the broader ECE industry.

Support access to care through specialized subsidy expertise.

The work we do to support low-income families is critically important. In fiscal 2025, revenue generated from families whose tuition is partially or fully subsidized by amounts received from government agencies comprised 37% of total revenue.

We have a dedicated Subsidy Team that supports families navigating the complex and unique subsidy programs of states and local governments. This team works with approximately 850 national and local agencies to support our centers and families secure subsidy funding and efficiently manage complex agency processes.

Strengthen operational excellence and family engagement through technology investments.

We utilize systems and technology to monitor operational performance, support communication with families and facilitate enrollment. Our proprietary center management platform, OneCMS, supports center operations and provides real-time KPI tracking and reporting. Our branded mobile application enables ongoing communication between center staff and families. Our parent portal allows families to enroll and manage their accounts through a mobile-enabled platform. Our websites support search engine marketing strategies, including regional and center-specific content, and provide information to families throughout the enrollment process.

Deliver high-quality early learning through a proprietary, research-based curriculum.

We use a proprietary, research-based developmental curriculum across all early education classrooms (our "Early Foundations curriculum"), designed around expected developmental milestones for children from six weeks through kindergarten entry and encompassing all core learning domains, including language and literacy, social and emotional development, cognitive and executive function, physical and motor development and wellness, and the creative arts. The curriculum is designed to serve children across diverse economic and ethnic backgrounds, including dual language learners, and emphasizes skill development supported by ongoing assessment and documentation of individual progress. Our Early Foundations curriculum aligns with industry best practices and is periodically reviewed by external subject-matter experts to ensure comprehensive content and appropriate sequencing and is supplemented by a proprietary enrichment program for small-group instruction. We regularly update the curriculum to reflect evolving early childhood education research and the needs of children and families, including addressing social-emotional development, and utilize technology to support curriculum delivery, individualized instruction, and progress monitoring.

3

Reinforce quality and trust through rigorous, independent accreditation.

We strive to achieve nationally recognized accreditation across all our early learning centers and onsite programs through the National Accreditation Commission for Early Care and Education Programs and the National Early Childhood Program Accreditation, which are external, independent accrediting agencies. By law or regulation, accreditation is not required to operate a center. We voluntarily pursue accreditation to provide parents a mechanism to accurately assess quality by relying on the objectivity of third-party accreditors. In addition to building the Company’s reputation within the industry and among our families, accreditation offers the added benefit of enhanced reimbursement rates from states.

Accreditation is a rigorous process. The accreditation process typically takes up to two years as programs are assessed across numerous standards including relationships with children, families and the community, nutrition and health, teaching practices, physical environment, and leadership and management.

Demonstrate learning outcomes through independent, research-based assessments.

We utilize third-party research-based assessment tools to evaluate the developmental progress of children in our programs, including the BRIGANCE study, TerraNova and Ages & Stages Questionnaires. For example, the BRIGANCE study is administered in both fall and spring to measure student progress. This assessment is administered to children under six years of age across diverse ethnic and demographic groups through a norm-referenced developmental screen. The BRIGANCE study has reported two consistent findings in over six years of use in our centers:

•
Children enrolled in KinderCare programs are better prepared than their peers. Across ages, gender, income levels and ethnic backgrounds, children enrolled in KinderCare programs show greater than expected gains from fall to spring and a significant reduction in learning delays, when compared to the normative sample. Additionally, an increased percentage of children screen in the gifted range as compared to the normative sample.

•
The longer children are enrolled in KinderCare programs, the better the learning outcomes. Longitudinal studies assessing outcomes based on tenure within our programs consistently demonstrate that children enrolled in KinderCare programs for over one year significantly outperform children enrolled for less than one year. Notably, children from lower income or minority populations significantly benefit from our programs.

Human Capital Resources Management

As of January 3, 2026, we employed approximately 43,700 employees, of whom approximately 35,700 were full-time. Our workforce includes over 42,000 teachers, staff and field team employees and approximately 1,600 employees on our corporate National Support Center team. None of our employees are represented by labor unions. We believe we maintain positive working relationships with our employees.

Our human capital strategy focuses on attracting, developing and retaining qualified educators and staff to support consistent operations and quality standards across our centers and sites. The primary components of our human capital management approach include culture and values, workforce planning and hiring, employee engagement and retention, training and professional development, and compensation and benefits.

Culture and Values

Our belief that we are more than just teachers is core to our culture and serves as a guiding principle across all actions we take. We summarize our calling to impact children and families in our actionable and behavior-based Service Values, which are shared by all our teams:

•
I build great relationships with families;

•
I anticipate and quickly resolve parent concerns;

•
I genuinely care about every child in my classroom;

•
My team works together to make our center warm and welcoming;

•
An important part of my job is talking with parents about their children; and

•
I respond to the unique needs and interests of every child.

4

Workforce Planning and Hiring

We utilize centralized recruiting systems and standardized hiring processes to support hiring at scale across our national network. Our talent selection process includes a proprietary, research-based assessment tool developed in partnership with Gallup to evaluate candidate traits associated with high-performing teachers.

We conduct comprehensive background checks consistent with federal and state requirements, including nationwide and state criminal history checks and reference checks.

New employees participate in a structured onboarding process designed to support compliance with licensing requirements, introduce operational procedures and reinforce instructional standards.

Employee Engagement and Retention

We measure employee engagement across our organization through regular surveys conducted in partnership with Gallup. We use survey results to identify operational improvements and leadership development opportunities. We have earned the Gallup Exceptional Workplace Award ten years in a row and are the first and only early childhood education provider recognized with this award.

We monitor retention, turnover, internal promotion rates and other workforce metrics to assess organizational stability and inform workforce planning initiatives.

Training and Professional Development

We provide ongoing professional development opportunities for teachers, center directors and field leaders. Training includes classroom instruction, virtual learning and periodic professional development days focused on instructional practices, regulatory compliance and leadership development.

We support career progression within our organization through structured development pathways and advancement opportunities. In addition, we offer eligible full-time teachers the opportunity to earn their Child Development Associate (CDA) certification at no cost to the employee

Compensation and Benefits

We offer eligible full-time employees a comprehensive total rewards program that includes competitive wages, health and wellness benefits, matching 401(k) contributions and life insurance coverage. We periodically review compensation practices to remain competitive within the labor markets in which we operate.

We also provide discounted tuition for employees’ children enrolled in our centers and onsite programs.

Intellectual Property

We rely on a combination of trademark, patent, copyright and trade secrets, as well as confidentiality and license agreements and other contractual provisions, to establish and protect our intellectual property rights. We enter into agreements with our employees and other parties with which we do business to limit access to and disclosure of our technology and other proprietary information.

Government Regulation

Various aspects of our operations are subject to federal, state and local laws, rules and regulations, any of which may change from time to time. Laws and regulations affecting our business may change, sometimes frequently and significantly, as a result of political, economic, social or other events. We do not expect the costs of continuing to comply with applicable laws and regulations to have a material effect on our business. Some of the federal, state or local laws and regulations that affect us include but are not limited to:

•
consumer product safety, product liability, truth-in-advertising or consumer protection laws;

•
labor and employment laws, including wage and hour laws;

•
licensing and child care specific regulations;

•
tax laws or interpretations thereof, including collection of state sales tax on e-commerce sales;

•
data protection, privacy and security laws and regulations;

5

•
environmental, health and safety laws and regulations;

•
trade, anti-bribery, customs or import and export laws and regulations, including collection of tariffs on product imports; and

•
intellectual property laws.

The key areas of government regulation are:

•
Licensing and Child Care Centers. Laws, regulations and licensing, and other requirements impacting education, child care and before- and after-school programs exist at the national, state and local levels, and such laws, regulations and licensing periodically change. In most jurisdictions where we operate, our child care centers are required by law to meet a variety of operational requirements, including minimum qualifications and background checks for our center personnel as well as teacher-to-child ratios and various employment, facility, and health, fire and safety regulations. Regulations may also impact the design and furnishing of our centers.

•
Data Protection, Privacy and Security. As part of our normal business activities, we collect, use, store, process and transmit personal information with respect to our clients, children, families and employees. Such activities are subject to a variety of federal and state laws, rules, and regulations. We expect to be required to comply over time with new and changing laws and regulations, including increasingly rigorous requirements as the regulatory environment related to data protection, privacy and security continues to expand, such as the increased adoption of state-based laws.

Seasonality

The results of operations fluctuate due to seasonal variations in our business. Enrollments at centers and before- and after-school sites are generally higher in the spring and fall back-to-school period and lower during the summer and calendar year-end holidays when families may be on vacation or utilizing alternative child care arrangements and when sites may temporarily close for school breaks. As a result, revenue at centers and sites may decline during the third quarter, which overlaps with most of the summer season. To adapt to the changes in seasonal demand, centers offer summer programs and Champions offers day camps for school-age children during the summer and calendar year-end holidays.

Available Information

We file or furnish annual, quarterly and current reports, proxy statements and other information with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, (the “Exchange Act”). The SEC maintains a website that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding companies, like KinderCare, that file electronically with the SEC. The address of that site is http://www.sec.gov.

Our annual, quarterly and current reports, proxy statements and other information we file with or furnish to the SEC are available free of charge on the Investor Relations section of our website, https://investors.kindercare.com, as soon as reasonably practicable after such material is electronically filed with or furnished to the SEC.

Additionally, we provide notifications of news or announcements regarding our financial performance, including SEC filings, investor events, and press and earnings releases as part of our investor relations website. We have used, and intend to continue to use, our investor relations website as means of disclosing material non-public information and for complying with our disclosure obligations under Regulation FD. As such, we encourage investors, the media and others to follow the channels listed above and to review the information disclosed through such channels. Any updates to the list of disclosure channels through which we will announce information will be posted on the investor relations page on our website. The contents of our websites are not intended to be incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K or in any other report or document we file with the SEC. Further, our references to website URLs are intended to be inactive textual references only.