For Profit Child Care: Four Decades of Growth

Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/for-profit-child-care-four-decades-of-growth/5016722/

To view the Exchange Top 40 List (North America’s Largest For Profit Child Care Organizations) click here. For decades Exchange magazine has tracked the growth of the for profit child care sector. This year, instead of looking one year back and one year forward as is our annual practice, we are going to reflect on trends in the for profit sector over the past four decades. Overall, it has been a period of tremendous growth for the for profit sector. However, it has also been characterized by alternating periods of rapid growth, slow downs, retraction, and consolidation for the largest for profit companies. Here are some of the key developments along the way: 1967 • Most child care is provided by family child care, small nursery schools, mom and pop centers, and by the recently (1965) launched Head Start program. 1969 • La Petite Academy, Gerber Children’s Centers (now Learning Care Group), KinderCare Learning Centers, and Children’s World Learning Centers (the latter two now both part of Knowledge Learning Corporation) all come into existence. These four companies expand quickly and dominate the for profit sector for the next two decades. 1970 • In a famous McCall’s magazine article, “The Day Care Business,” Alice Lake declares: “Everybody wants ...