Kiddie Academy Educational Child Care is an American franchise system of early learning centers with over 300 franchised academies in 33 states and the District of Columbia. Kiddie Academy is headquartered in Abingdon, Maryland.
Several Academies[2] are nationally accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), measuring programs and services against more than 400 related accreditation criteria and the 10 NAEYC Early Childhood Program standards.
Kiddie Academy locations are independently owned and operated by qualified professionals. The company sold its first franchise agreement in 1993,[3] and expanded outside Maryland in 1996.[4] The company's 200th franchise opened in Vancouver, Washington in December 2017.[5] By the end of 2018, the company had opened more than 210 locations in 29 states and the District of Columbia.[6] The company projects 40 new Academies to open in 2019, which would grow the network to more than 250 open and operating locations.[6]
Currently, there are 16 open Kiddie Academy locations in Kiddie Academy's home state of Maryland: Locust Point, Abingdon, Elkridge, Elkton, Kent Island, Laurel, Oxon Hill, Arnold, Ellicott City, Lanham, Odenton, Gaithersburg, Millersville, Columbia, Urbana and New Market.[7][8][9]
In recent years, Kiddie Academy has been recognized by several publications for franchise system growth. The company has been listed in the Franchise 500, Entrepreneur's annual franchise recognition program in 2017, 2018 and 2019.[10][11][12] In 2018, Franchise Times included Kiddie Academy on its Top 200+ list,[13] and its Fast & Serious list,[14] the magazine's ranking of smartest-growing franchises.
^Wolf, Articles by Callie Evergreen, Beth Ewen, Laura Michaels and Nicholas Upton; Research by Matt Haskin and Max. "Fast & Serious: 31-40". franchisetimes.com. Retrieved 2021-02-09.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)