24-hour child care center KD Academy opens state-of-the-art facility in urban core, quadruples student capacity

Kansas City, Mo. — The early learning and child care center KD Academy, currently located at 3501 Woodland Ave., will move its headquarters at the end of August to a freshly constructed, 14,000-square-foot facility located at 2141 Prospect Ave.

The expansion allows KD Academy to enhance its services, upgrading capacity from 95 to 430 students and from 19 to 65 caretaking employees. The center, formerly named The Kiddie Depot Learning Center, is Kansas City’s only child care facility that operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“We’ve been forced to turn away hundreds of kids over the years simply because we didn’t have the capacity,” said founder and co-owner Penny Dale-McCant, who runs the business alongside her husband Myron. “This new state-of-the-art facility not only allows us to offer care for more kids from infancy through young adulthood, it’s also a beautiful building where families will feel at home.”

The early learning center spans 10,000 square feet and will feature Kansas City’s newest state-of-the-art design, as well as award-winning literacy and STEM-based programs. The new space will also feature a saltwater aquarium foyer, colored alcove classrooms and a multipurpose lab for STEM and coding.

The adjoining 4,000-square-foot, mixed-use space will host partners that offer extended services to KD Academy families and the surrounding community. It’s the McCants’ goal to partner with local health, wellness or educational providers to offer these much-needed services to anyone in the community, not just KD Academy students. At this time, pediatric and mental health providers are being considered for immediate build-out of the space.

KD Academy’s mission is multi-pronged: The center provides around-the-clock care for children from six weeks to 13 years of age and also places a strong emphasis in early education and literacy training. Shortly after launching, the McCants also started an initiative to instill nutritional practices into mealtime. The nutrient-rich dishes are homemade by Myron’s mother out of KD Academy’s built-in “Nanny’s Kitchen.”

Penny started KD Academy out of her home in 2005, serving children and families from her neighborhood for seven years. In August 2012, the center scaled its business model into a 3,000-square-foot commercial facility while operating at maximum capacity. After witnessing clients’ strapped schedules firsthand, KD Academy began providing 24/7 child care service to offer aid to working parents. Then, in 2017, the McCants upgraded again to their current space to meet exponential demand. Construction on the new facility, which began in 2019 — in partnership with local general contractor Centric Projects, and with architecture and interior design provided by KC-based Hoefer Welker — is expected to conclude in mid-June.

KD Academy’s new location in the Prospect Corridor will allow for continued development of the area as well as crucial child and health care services for Kansas City’s urban core as a part of the Central City Economic Development opportunity (CCED).

The early learning center has several public and private partnerships with local businesses and organizations like Gates Bar-B-Q, Reconciliation Services and Big Brothers Big Sisters to provide child care options for employees and families the organizations work with. Due to expanded capacity, KD Academy is actively recruiting new employees for all shifts.

“Our goal starting out was to create a child care model that exists nowhere else in the region, which we’ve done with great success,” Myron said. “The natural next step is to build out our capabilities to provide for as many babies and kids in need as we possibly can, as well as their families. The services that the new early learning and pediatric centers can offer will provide immeasurable value to families in Kansas City’s urban core and beyond.”

About KD Academy

Founded in 2005, KD Academy began as a home-based child care facility, serving children from six weeks to 12 years of age. Understanding the glaring need for quality service, KD Academy began to provide service around the clock for working parents regardless of work schedule. Today, we pride ourselves on being Kansas City’s 24-hour/7-day, fully functioning child care facility with an equal focus on education and nutrition. Learn more at kdacademykc.com.