Privacy Policy

Effective Date: October 1, 2022

ESSENTIAL BRANDS, INC. PRIVACY POLICY (the “Policy”)

Kiddie Academy Domestic Franchising, LLC, an affiliate of Essential Brands, Inc., (collectively, “Kiddie Academy”, “our”, or “we”) is the franchisor of early child care educational centers throughout the United States. This Privacy Policy explains how Kiddie Academy collects, uses, discloses, and protects your information. This Policy also explains your choices regarding your information. This Policy applies to all information we obtain about visitors from our website (kiddieacademy.com and all related sites, pages, or subpages) (collectively, the “Site”), our individual franchisee owned Academy sites, our corporate Academy sites linked from the Site, and all other services offered by Kiddie Academy (collectively, the “Services”) (the corporate and franchisee owned Academies shall each individually be referred to as an “Academy” and collectively, the “Academies”). This policy does not apply to information we collect from you offline, at or through, our individually owned and operated franchised Academies. Your use of this website or providing us with personal information means you agree to the terms and conditions of this Policy and any updates we make. You will know that changes have been made to this Policy by a change in the effective date. We reserve the right to amend this Policy at our discretion and at any time.

Independently Owned and Operated

Each franchisee owned Academy is an individually owned and operated franchise of the Kiddie Academy system.

Kiddie Academy Online Security

We value your trust in providing us your personal information, thus we are striving to use commercially acceptable means of protecting the information we collect and store from loss, misuse, destruction, or unauthorized access. Our security includes physical, administrative, and technology-based measures. You acknowledge that no security measure or modality of data transmission can be guaranteed to be 100% secure, therefore, we cannot guarantee absolute security. If you have any security questions, please contact us via one of the available means provided at the end of this privacy policy.

Personal Information that Kiddie Academy May Collect Online

We process Personal Information from your use of our Site or Services when you:

Request Information about an Academy. When you request information, we collect the parent or guardian’s identifiers such as your name, email, and phone number. We collect this information so that we may fulfill your request for information about that specific Academy.

Schedule a Tour in an Academy. When you schedule a tour, we collect the parent or guardian’s identifiers such as your name, email, and phone number. We collect this information so that we may maintain a record of our tours and communicate with you concerning the tour.

Enroll in our Academies. When you enroll in one of our franchisee owned Academies or corporate Academies, we collect the parent or guardian’s identifiers such as your name, mailing address, email, phone number, and signature. We also collect the child’s identifiers such as their name, home address, and phone number, protected classifications such as the child’s race and medical condition(s), and identifiers of others, like emergency contact information.

Request Information on Franchising. When you request information, we collect your name, email and telephone number. We collect this information so that we may fulfill your request for information on Franchising opportunities.

Submit a Preliminary Questionnaire. When you submit a Preliminary Questionnaire to apply to become a franchisee, we collect identifiers such as your name, address, email, phone number, and signature, protected classifications such as, financial information, personal net worth information, and background and criminal history information.

Provide our Services. To provide our Services, we process the parent or guardian’s identifiers such as your name, mailing address, email, phone number, and signature. We process the child’s identifiers such as their name, home address, and phone number.

Apply for Employment. When you apply for employment, we collect your identifiers, such as your name, email, and home address. We collect your professional and employment information, such as your prior employment. We also collect your education information, like the schools you attended, and any other information you decide to share with us. We collect this information so that we may communicate with you and assess your qualifications for the position for which you applied. Employment related decisions related to the franchisee owned Academies are made in the sole and absolute discretion by the independent owner and operator of each such franchisee owned Academy.

We collect the following personal information from you automatically through your use of our Site:

Device Information. We collect personal information about the device you use when you access our Site, such as your hardware model and operating system. We collect this information so we may monitor for potential risk and fraud and understand how users interact with the Site.

Log data. Our servers automatically record certain information sent by your browser, such as your web page or resource request, your IP address, browser language preference, operating system, device ID, geo-location data and the date and time of your request. We collect this information for security monitoring and to improve our system performance.

Cookie data. We use cookies and similar tools to enable the functionality of our Site and online Services, to assess and improve our Site and Services, and to deliver more tailored content to you.

How Kiddie Academy Uses Personal Information Collected

Kiddie Academy uses the personal information or other information gathered about you for the following purposes:

• Fulfill or meet the reason you provided the personal information to us.
• Respond to your customer service requests.
• To tailor the content and information that we may send or display to you, and to otherwise personalize your experiences while using our website.
• To better understand how users access and use our website, both on an aggregated and individualized basis, to improve our website and respond to user preferences, and for other research and analytical purposes.
• For marketing and promotional purposes. For example, we may use your Personally Identifiable Information, such as your email address, to send you news, special offers and promotions, or to otherwise contact you about information we think may interest you. We also may use the information that we learn about you to assist us in advertising on third-party websites. If at any time, you prefer not to receive any form of communication from Kiddie Academy, you may opt-out by email or by phone

How Your Information May Be Shared

Kiddie Academy does not sell or rent your personal information. We may share your information with our trusted service providers to allow us to provide our services and to communicate with you. Such third parties have access to personal information as needed to perform their functions, but they are not allowed to use it for other purposes. We use contractual or other means to protect your Personal Information disclosed to such third parties.

Kiddie Academy may also disclose personal information under the following circumstances:

• To appropriate governmental authorities if disclosure is required by law (for example, a subpoena) or regulation or is requested by a government agency.
• To appropriate governmental authorities if our records indicate an individual may be engaged in fraudulent activity or other deceptive practices that a governmental agency should be made aware of.
• To appropriate governmental authorities, where warranted by a company’s failure to participate in the advertising self-regulatory process or respond to an online privacy complaint, or where a company fails to honor the recommendations of the National Advertising Division, Children’s Advertising Review Unit or National Advertising Review Board; and
• Legal Purposes. Where we are legally required to do so, such as in response to legal process or law enforcement, to exercise our legal rights, to enforce our terms of service or other contract, or to comply with the requirements of any applicable law, we will share your identifiers (name, email, mailing address, phone number, and username), internet activity information (user ID and IP address), and financial information (bank account information and credit card information).
• To Prevent Harm. We will share your identifiers (name, email, mailing address, phone number, and username), internet activity information (user ID and IP address if we believe it is necessary to detect, investigate, prevent, or take action against illegal activities, fraud, or situations involving potential threats to the rights, property, or personal safety of any person.
• Within Kiddie Academy. We may share your identifiers (name, email, mailing address, phone number), and internet activity information (user ID and IP address) to Kiddie Academy leadership, management, and other staff as appropriate to facilitate the business.
• To our Local Franchisees. We may share your identifiers (name, email, mailing address, phone number, username, and signature) to our franchises to provide our Services, to communicate with you, and conduct data analysis, fraud monitoring, and prevention.
• To our Service Providers. We share your identifiers (name, email, mailing address, phone number, and username), and internet activity information (user ID and IP address), with service providers that provide support services to us, such as marketing services and web hosting providers.

COOKIES AND OTHER SIMILAR TECHNOLOGIES THROUGH YOUR USE OF OUR SITE

We use cookies and similar technologies to enable the functionality of our Site and Services and to assess and improve our Site and Services.

What are Cookies?

A cookie is a small piece of data that is sent to your internet browser from a web server and stored on your computer’s hard drive. Cookies are text files that your web browser places on your device when you visit a website. Cookies can be “persistent” or “session” cookies. Persistent cookies stay on your device for a set period of time or until you delete them, while session cookies expire when you close your web browser. Kiddie Academy uses non-identifying cookies to provide easier site navigation and access to forms. You can still use Kiddie Academy’s site if your browser is set to reject cookies, although some features may not work.

Our website contains web beacons which may collect non-identifying information. A web beacon, also known as an Internet tag, pixel tag or clear GIF, is typically a one-pixel, transparent image located on a webpage which is generally used to transmit information back to a web server.

Our advertising providers use cookies and web beacons on our website to deliver advertisements that are more relevant to you and your interests.

To enable and improve your browsing and user experience, we use the following cookies:

• These cookies are required for making use of the Site. These cookies include security cookies to authenticate users, prevent fraudulent use, and protect user data from unauthorized parties as well as session cookies that remember your log-in session so you can move easily within the Site.
• Functional. These cookies record some of your activity on the Site as well as information about your device, such as what browser you are running and what pages you access. This information helps us and our third-party service providers diagnose server and software errors, and in cases of abuse, track and mitigate the abuse.
• Analytics. Our service providers use cookies as part of their tools. These cookies allow our service providers and us to recognize and count the number of users of the Services, to see how users move around the Site, and how they engage with different functions, including usage statistics, when they are using the Services. This helps us improve the way our Services work, for example by making sure our users are finding what they need easily.

Marketing and Advertising. Our advertising providers use cookies and web pixels to identify and store actions that users take when visiting our Site (such as pages visited). These cookies are used in order to: (i) identify you as a prospect for our Services; (ii) deliver advertisements that are more relevant to you and your interests; (iii) limit the number of times you see an advertisement as well as (iv) help measure the effectiveness of the advertising campaign. If a user engages with our content, their behavior on our Site is used to present them with targeted advertising based on their interests. This means that after you are done browsing our Site you may see some advertisements about our Services elsewhere on the Internet.

Third-Party Links and Use

You may find links to third party websites on our Site. These websites should have their own privacy policies which you should check. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for their policies whatsoever as we have no control over them.

We are not responsible for the privacy or security practices of any third party; this includes third parties to whom we are permitted to disclose your personal data in accordance with this policy or any applicable laws. The collection and use of your information by these third parties may be subject to separate privacy and security policies.

Children’s Privacy

We never intentionally collect personal information from anyone under the age of 16. No one under age 16 may provide any personal information on the Website. If you are under 16, do not use or provide any information on this Website. If we learn we have collected or received personal information from a child under 16 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information. If you believe we might have any information from a child under 16, please contact us.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

We do not knowingly collect Personal Information about individuals residing in the European Union. If you believe we have collected or processed personal information about any individuals residing in the European Union, please contact us immediately at support@kiddieacademy.com.

 

Supplemental California Privacy Policy

Last updated: May 7, 2026

1. Scope and Applicability

This Supplemental California Privacy Notice (the “Notice”) applies exclusively to visitors, users, and others who reside in the State of California. It is intended to supplement, not replace, the information provided in the Kiddie Academy Privacy Policy. Kiddie Academy has adopted this Notice to comply with the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”) and the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (“CPRA”). Its purpose is to explain your rights under these laws and how we handle your personal information in accordance with them.

2. Personal Information We Collect

“Personal Information,” as defined by Cal. Civ. Code §1798.140, means information that identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with you. Personal Information does not include information that is publicly available, de-identified, or aggregated as defined in Cal. Civ. Code §1798.140.

Within the past 12 months, we have collected the following categories of Personal Information from users of our site. Please note that the specific Personal Information we collect about you will vary depending on the nature of your interactions with us and may not include all of the examples listed below.

In the past 12 months, we have collected the following categories of Personal Information about visitors on our website:

• Personal Identifiers including: name, email address, phone number, mailing address, home address, signature, IP address, unique personal identifier, and online identifiers.
• Protected Classification Characteristics: Along with the Personal Information already listed herein, we may also collect: age, date of birth, marital status, sex (including gender and gender identity), veteran status, race, and ethnicity.
• Commercial Information including records of products or services purchased, obtained, or considered, or other purchasing or consuming histories or tendencies, and information regarding your interaction with our websites and applications.
• Professional or Employment-Related Information: We may collect information provided during the application and recruitment process, including your prior work experience, education history, skills, qualifications, references, and recommendations; content from your resume, application form, or cover letter; personal websites or documents you choose to share; details about professional licenses, training, disciplinary history, and memberships in professional or civic organizations; citizenship, work authorization information, and languages spoken.
• Non-public Education Information such as the schools you attended, transcripts, records, and other information relating to your secondary and post-secondary education.
• Internet Activity including information about a user’s interaction with our website, which may include browsing history, search history, IP address, browser type, pages visited, search terms entered into site search functionality, and interactions with site features (such as online chat). We also collect any information you submit through forms or applications on our website as described in the other applicable categories above (such as identifiers, commercial information, or professional or employment-related information).
• Sensitive Personal Information: The categories of Sensitive Personal Information (“SPI”) we may collect about you depend on how you interact with us and the nature of your relationship with us. In addition to the categories listed above, we may collect the following Sensitive Personal Information in the contexts described below:
  • Enrolling Families: We do not collect SPI through the online Enrollment Agreement. However, We may collect limited SPI through ancillary forms and records—including those completed or uploaded on our Site—necessary to provide care and comply with applicable legal, health, and licensing requirements. This may include a child’s medical or health-related information, such as immunization records, allergies, medications, dietary restrictions, and information related to medical conditions or emergency treatment, as well as information parents or guardians choose to provide to support a child’s developmental, behavioral, or safety needs.
  • We collect and use this information only for purposes permitted under the CPRA, including supporting educational and care services, ensuring the health and safety of children and staff, complying with applicable laws and licensing obligations, and communicating with families. We do not use this SPI to infer characteristics or for any purpose beyond what is reasonably necessary to support a safe, healthy, and appropriate learning environment.
  • Job Applicants: Information reasonably necessary to evaluate and process applications for employment, administer background checks where permitted by law, and comply with legal obligations, which may include government identification numbers and criminal history or background check information.
  • Prospective Franchisees: Information reasonably necessary to evaluate franchise applications which may include financial information, including personal net worth, government identifiers such as a driver’s license number or passport.
• Biometric Data: We do not directly collect or store biometric information through our website. If you believe biometric data has been collected in error, please contact us at support@kiddieacademy.net.
• Geolocation Data: We do not collect or retain precise geolocation data as part of our general operations. We temporarily process approximate location information only when a family voluntarily enters or shares their location on the Find an Academy page in order to display nearby locations. This information is used solely to provide that functionality and is not stored or retained after the request is completed. If you believe your geolocation data has been collected or used in a manner inconsistent with this description, please contact us at support@kiddieacademy.net.
• Sensory Data: We do not actively collect sensory data. If you suspect your sensory data is being collected, please contact us at support@kiddieacademy.net.
• Inferences Drawn from Other Personal Information: We do not create profiles using inferences drawn from other Personal Information you have provided.

3. Sources From Which We Collect Personal Information

We may collect the Personal Information described above from the following types of sources, depending on how you interact with us:

• Directly from you
• Automatically, through cookies, web beacons and similar technologies when you use our Site (to learn more about how we use cookies and similar technologies, click here)
• From service providers and third parties that support our operations, including those handling marketing, communications, and other functions performed on our behalf
• From public records
• From third-party vendors that help us operate and support our website
• From background check and screening vendors, only in connection with individuals applying for employment or franchise opportunities
• From government entities, as required by law, including for purposes of verifying residency or work authorization for potential employees
• From individuals who may provide information about you, such as a spouse or family member in connection with an application or inquiry you initiate

4. Our Purposes for Collecting Personal Information

We collect Personal Information about you for the purposes listed below and described in greater detail in our general Privacy Policy above. The specific reasons for collecting your Personal Information may differ based on the nature of your relationship and interactions with us.

• To respond to inquiries and schedule tours
• To process enrollment information
• To respond to customer service requests
• To personalize your experience on our website
• For marketing and promotional purposes
• To comply with legal obligations and safety protocols
• To improve our website and services
• To collect, process and review job applications you submit through the website
• To respond to requests regarding franchising with us

5. How We May Share and Disclose Personal Information

We do not sell Personal Information for monetary consideration; however, under California law, “sharing” includes disclosing Personal Information for cross-context behavioral advertising, even if no money is exchanged. Within the previous 12 months Kiddie Academy has shared the following types of information to the following third parties:

• Categories of Third Parties to Whom Information Was Disclosed:
  • Service providers (e.g., hosting, payment processing, customer support)
  • Advertising and analytics partners
  • Contractors and consultants
  • Appropriate governmental authorities if required by law
  • Our franchisees
  • Kiddie Academy leadership, management and other staff as appropriate
• Purpose of Disclosure: We share Personal Information for the following business purposes:
  • To provide and improve our services
  • To personalize user experience
  • For analytics and measurement
  • For advertising and marketing, and support services
  • To comply with legal obligations
  • To prevent harm and conduct investigations if we suspect fraud or other illegal activities
  • To review job applications
• Categories of Personal Information Disclosed:
  • Identifiers (such as name, email address, IP address) & Browsing history on our website
    • This includes information about a user’s interactions with our website, such as the specific pages they visit, search terms entered into our website’s search functionality, and text collected through our online chat feature. We do not collect information about a user’s overall internet browsing history or search history outside of our website.
  • Commercial information (such as records of information you’ve requested)
  • Personal employment information you may have disclosed to us

Your Rights: California residents have the right to opt out of the sale or sharing of their Personal Information. You may exercise this right by clicking the “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information” link on our homepage or by submitting a request by sending us an email at support@kiddieacademy.net, or calling (800) 554-3343. We will honor opt-out requests and notify third parties to cease further sale or sharing of your Personal Information.

We do not sell the Personal Information of consumers under 16 years of age for monetary consideration. If you suspect Personal Information is being sold, please contact us at support@kiddieacademy.net.

In the preceding twelve (12) months, we have shared limited internet or other electronic network activity information collected through cookies and similar tracking technologies with data analytics providers and cookie providers in connection with our website operations and marketing activities. This type of sharing may be considered a “sale” or “sharing” of personal information under certain state privacy laws. We collect personal information about families and children solely for the purpose of providing child care, educational, and related services, and we do not sell or share that information for targeted advertising or cross-context behavioral advertising. To opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information collected through cookies and similar technologies, please visit Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information.

6. Third-Party Links and Use

You may find links to third-party websites on our Site. These websites should have their own privacy policies which you should check. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for their policies whatsoever as we have no control over them.

We are not responsible for the privacy or security practices of any third party; this includes third parties to whom we are permitted to disclose your personal data in accordance with this policy or any applicable laws. The collection and use of your information by these third parties may be subject to separate privacy and security policies.

7. Do Not Track

Our systems currently do not support Do Not Track (“DNT”) mechanisms. Do Not Track is a preference you can set in your web browser to signal your privacy preference not to have data about your online browsing activities monitored and collected. No uniform technology standard for recognizing and implementing DNT signals has been finalized. As such, we do not currently respond to DNT browser signals or any other mechanism that automatically communicates your choice not to be tracked online. If a standard for online tracking is adopted that we must follow in the future, we will inform you about that practice in a revised version of this Privacy Policy. For more information about DNT, visit www.eff.org/issues/do-not-track.

8. Consumer Rights Under CCPA/CPRA

If you are a California resident, you have specific rights regarding your Personal Information under the California Consumer Privacy Act and the California Privacy Rights Act. These laws are designed to give you greater transparency and control over how your Personal Information is collected, used, shared, and retained. The following section describes your rights and explains how you can exercise them. If you would like to exercise any of your rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act, please use one of the following methods:

• Calling us at (800) 554-3343
• Emailing us at support@kiddieacademy.net

Right to Know: You have the right to know what Personal Information we have collected about you. This includes:

• The categories of Personal Information we have collected about you
• The categories of sources from which we have collected Personal Information about you
• Our purposes for collecting, sharing, or selling your Personal Information
• The categories of third parties with whom we disclose your Personal Information
• The specific Personal Information we have collected about you

Right to Delete Your Personal Information: You have the right to request that we delete Personal Information we have collected from you, subject to certain exceptions permitted by law.

Right to Opt-Out of Sales and Sharing of Personal Information: You have the right to direct us not to sell or share your Personal Information. You may exercise this right by enabling an opt-out preference signal, such as the Global Privacy Control, where available. We will honor such signals where they are enabled and supported by your browser or device. You may also exercise this right by submitting a request through one of the contact methods listed above.

Right to Correct Inaccurate Information: You have the right to request that we correct any inaccurate Personal Information we maintain about you.

Right to Non-Discrimination for the Exercise of Your Privacy Rights: We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your privacy rights under the CCPA/CPRA. This means you will not be denied goods or services, charged different prices, or receive a different level or quality of service for exercising your rights.

Verification: In accordance with CPRA regulations, we do not require identity verification for opt-out requests. Consumers may submit a request without providing extensive Personal Information. We may ask for minimal details (such as name, government issued identification, or email address) solely to facilitate the request, but we will not:

• Ask for photographs or biometric data.
• Collect sensitive Personal Information beyond what is necessary to process the request.

Any information collected for the purpose of processing an opt-out request will be used only for that purpose and will be deleted promptly after the request is fulfilled, unless retention is required by law.

9. Data Retention

We retain Personal Information only as long as necessary for the purposes stated above, or as required by law. Retention periods vary based on the type of data and legal obligations.

10. Changes to this Policy

We may update this policy periodically. The “Effective Date” at the top indicates when the latest changes were made.