Merkley Launches Investigation into Private Equity Ownership of Child Care Centers

Investigation Seeks to Determine if Private Equity Ownership in the Child Care Industry is Prioritizing Investor Profits Over the Health, Safety, and Welfare of Children

Washington, D.C. - To address the growing concern over the role private equity is playing in the child care industry, U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, launched an investigation into the two largest private equity controlled child care companies serving collectively over 365,000 children, KinderCare Learning Companies and Learning Care Group, as well as their respective private equity owners. Merkley is calling on these companies to provide information and documents, such as financial records, ownership structure, tuition and cost trends, safety standards, and employment practices to better understand the effects of private equity ownership in the child care sector.

"Ensuring working families can access safe and affordable child care is paramount to building out the middle class and making it easier for families to get ahead. Unfortunately, private equity firms have increasingly brought their playbook to essential care industries-including child care-buying up independent providers, rolling them into large chains, and prioritizing investor profits over the well-being of the families and communities that depend on these services," said Ranking Member Jeff Merkley.

"Our future generations are our greatest resource, and we owe it to them to ensure their safety and security are at the forefront of everything we do. The private equity firms and the child care companies they control owe it to the families they serve to fully cooperate with this investigation, and I look forward to fully examining the documents and information we are requesting," Merkley concluded.

As noted in the letter, since 2023, state regulators in several states have cited KinderCare facilities for inadequate supervision, staff-to-child ratio violations, unsafe or unsanitary conditions, and failures to report or respond appropriately to alleged abuse. Between 2015 and 2025, Learning Care Group-owned centers in multiple states-including Georgia, Missouri, and Texas-reported health and safety violations, with incidents involving children left unattended on buses, supervision failures, and alleged physical abuse by staff.

KinderCare Learning Companies is owned by Switzerland-based private equity firm Partners Group, and Learning Care Group is owned by private equity firm, American Securities. KinderCare Learning Companies and Learning Care Group own 1,500 and 1,100 child care centers across 40 states, respectively. KinderCare includes brands such as KCLC, Crème School, and Champions; and Learning Care Group operates under brands including La Petite Academy, Childtime, Tutor Time, Montessori Unlimited, Everbrook Academy, and Children's Courtyard.

To read the letters and list of questions Merkley sent to the child care companies and their private equity owners, please see below.

Letter to KinderCare Learning Companies and private equity firm Partners Group is HERE.

Letter to Learning Care Group and private equity firm American Securities is HERE.

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