Education
The Goddard School Franchise
An early-childhood-education and preschool franchise for infants through kindergarten, using the brand's own "Wonder of Learning" curriculum, franchised since predecessor Goddard Systems began offering Schools in March 2002. The current franchisor entity was formed in 2022 when Sycamore Partners Management, L.P. acquired the system; a Sycamore-managed fund also owns Playa Bowls, already in this dataset. Franchised unit count grew every year of the FDD's three-year window, from +29 in 2023 to +23 in 2025.
Every franchisor has to file a document called an FDD before they can legally sell you a franchise. Buried in it are the two things a sales rep won't volunteer: what you'll actually spend to open, and whether existing locations are opening or closing. That's what's below, pulled straight from The Goddard School's own filing.
What it costs to open
From the filing's investment breakdown -- not a "starting at" number a sales rep quoted you.
Franchise fee
$135,000
Total to open
$1,003,500–$8,908,000
Ongoing royalty
7% of gross sales
What you'd actually spend, over time
The upfront cost is only part of it. Plug in what you expect a location to bring in, and see the real total once royalties over a few years are added on top.
Defaulted to a rough education industry average, not a figure from The Goddard School's own FDD -- change it to your own estimate.
Total cost of ownership over 5 years
$1,126,000 – $9,030,500
Startup investment
$1,003,500–$8,908,000
Royalty per year (7%)
$24,500
Total royalty, 5yr
$122,500
When would you break even?
Revenue alone doesn't tell you this -- it depends on what's left after rent, labor, and everything else. The Goddard School's FDD doesn't disclose a reliable profit figure (most franchisors don't), so this starts from a typical education profit margin (~15%) and applies it to the revenue you entered above -- adjust the percentage to your own realistic estimate.
Defaulted to a general education industry benchmark, not a figure from The Goddard School's own filing -- this is a starting point to adjust, not a promise about what franchisees actually make.
At that profit, you'd break even in about
19.1–169.7 years
Weigh that payback period against what you already know: The Goddard School is opening more locations. A long payback period on a shrinking brand is a very different bet than the same payback period on a growing one.
Is The Goddard School actually growing?
Franchisors have to report, every year, how many locations opened, closed, or changed hands. Most franchise sites never show you this. Here it is:
Locations opened vs. closed, by year
GrowingFrom Item 20 of The Goddard School's FDD, the section franchisors use to disclose real openings and closings.
| Year | Franchised units, start | Franchised units, end | Net change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 598 | 627 | +29 |
| 2024 | 627 | 642 | +15 |
| 2025 | 642 | 665 | +23 |
Most recent year (2025): gained 23 franchised units, ending the year at 665 total.
What you're actually signing up for
The cost and growth numbers above are only part of the picture. These three FDD items are the ones a prospective franchisee tends to weigh most heavily once they're past the sticker price.
Training & ongoing support (Item 11)
Support is delivered through a management agreement with affiliate Goddard Manager (formerly Goddard Systems, Inc.) rather than the franchisor entity directly. Initial Training and Opening Support runs $35,000-$42,000, billed as part of Item 7's opening costs alongside a separate $55,000-$75,000 Initial Marketing Fee and a $35,000 Site Development Fee.
Territory protection (Item 12)
You will NOT receive an exclusive territory, and Goddard reserves broad rights to sell through other channels or co-branding relationships regardless of proximity to your School. The one real protection is a density cap rather than a sized territory: Goddard won't license more than one School per 10,000 households in the county your School is in, as long as you stay in compliance.
Renewal & termination terms (Item 17)
15-year initial term, renewable for one 5-year renewal term if requirements are met (a renewal license fee, required repairs/remodeling, and the then-current form of Franchise Agreement, which may differ materially). Unlike most peers in this dataset, the Franchise Agreement itself has no arbitration or mediation clause at all -- disputes go straight to litigation in the county or federal district where Goddard's headquarters is located, under Pennsylvania law. Non-compete after termination is 2 years within a 10-mile radius of the School or any other Goddard School.
How The Goddard School compares to other Education franchises
Across the 10 education franchises we've hand-verified so far, the typical range to open runs $875,355–$2,805,491, with royalties averaging around 7.5% of gross sales (based on the 9 of them that charge a flat %-of-revenue royalty).
$174,250–$265,750 · 8.25% royalty
Mad Science$127,050–$185,859 · 8% royalty
Primrose Schools$2,152,500–$7,960,300 · 7% royalty
Goldfish Swim School$2,584,033–$5,968,481 · 6% royalty
KidStrong$476,400–$671,200 · 7% royalty
School of Rock$387,050–$756,100 · 8% royalty
Aqua-Tots Swim School$1,619,820–$2,939,590 · 6% royalty
Kumon$101,630–$233,780 · non-%-of-revenue royalty
Mathnasium$127,316–$165,846 · 10% royalty
Keep going
- The Goddard School and KidStrong are both education franchises; KidStrong's total investment starts about $527,100 lower than The Goddard School's. KidStrong Franchise
- The Goddard School and Aqua-Tots Swim School are both education franchises; The Goddard School's total investment starts about $616,320 lower than Aqua-Tots Swim School's. Aqua-Tots Swim School Franchise
Where this came from: The Goddard School only files Net Worth/Experience Exemption notices with California DFPI (dfpi id 569113), so this entry is sourced from Minnesota's CARDS registry instead: MN File No. 10545, Clean FDD issued April 30, 2026, filed with MN 4/30/2026, effective 6/1/2026. This FDD's text uses an unfamiliar layout that the automated parser could not read at all (no fee, investment, royalty, or Item 20 table were extracted), so every figure here was pulled and verified by hand directly from the FDD text. Item 5: $135,000 Initial License Fee ($30,000 deposit plus $105,000 at the Opening Invoice; a $60,000 reduced fee applies only to an existing franchisee's additional School, and $115,000 for a qualifying veteran's first School). Item 6: 7% royalty on Gross Receipts, plus a 4% TGS Marketing Fund fee. Item 7 gives three separate single-School investment tables depending on how the real estate is obtained -- Table 1 (lease, landlord builds) totals $1,003,500-$1,503,000; Table 2 (lease, franchisee improves an existing building) totals $1,736,500-$5,032,000; Table 3 (purchase land and build) totals $5,493,500-$8,908,000; a fourth table covers a multi-School Development Agreement and isn't comparable. The low end of Table 1 and the high end of Table 3 are used here to span the realistic single-School range, following this dataset's Primrose Schools precedent for multi-format education franchises. Item 20 Table No. 1 confirmed, franchised outlets 2023-2025. Item 19 discloses a financial performance representation; not reproduced here -- read Item 19 directly. You can pull the same filing yourself from the California DFPI's public franchise search. Filed 2026-06-01. None of this is investment advice -- get the franchisor's current FDD and talk to a real attorney or accountant before you sign anything.
If you see a different unit count elsewhere: franchisors only have to refile their FDD annually, so the numbers here can run 6–18 months behind a franchisor's own real-time marketing claims -- which often aren't independently verified, and sometimes count signed-but-not-yet-open locations. A gap isn't necessarily an error on either side; it's two different snapshots in time from two different sources.