Daycares, private schools, tutoring and enrichment centres, camps, senior and home-care agencies, and private career colleges make up Ontario's education-and-care resale family. Almost every business here works with children, students or vulnerable adults, which means a government licence or registration tied to the specific operator, not the market, usually sets the pace of the deal, and staff safety-screening continuity is a recurring theme across the whole family.
A government licence is almost always the critical path — A daycare's licence, a private school's ministry filing, a private career college's registration, these are typically tied to the specific operating entity and don't transfer automatically, so a new application or notice to the relevant ministry is usually required before the buyer can legally operate. Timing the close around that approval, rather than around the parties' own readiness, is standard practice in this family.
Staff screening continuity is a recurring theme — Because most businesses in this family work directly with children or vulnerable adults, continuity of background-check and vulnerable-sector screening practices for staff is typically a standing diligence item, regardless of which specific business type is involved.
Prepaid fees and deposits are a liability that transfers with the business — Tuition prepayments, camp registration deposits and similar advance payments are typically liabilities that come with the business rather than staying with the seller, so reconciling exactly what's owed to existing families is usually a specific, documented step in the sale.
Real property sometimes comes with the business — A private school or an overnight camp more often bundles significant real property with the operating business than a daycare or tutoring centre typically does, which adds standard property diligence, financing, zoning, environmental review, on top of the licensing and enrolment issues already at play.
Browse the specific education and care business types below for the licensing and enrolment details particular to each.
Steady deal flow; $150K–$2M; historically asset sales timed around licensing; the CWELCC funding agreement's treatment is now often the deal-defining issue.
Independent private schools and Montessori programs; typically $300K–$5M+, often bundling real property; enrolment continuity and tuition-prepayment handling are central to the deal.
Tutoring franchises, independent learning centres and enrichment programs; typically $75K–$1M; asset sales built around enrolment base, curriculum/brand and lease.
Day camps, overnight camps and children's recreation programs; typically $150K–$3M+, often bundling seasonal real property; safety-screening continuity and prepaid registration liability are the standout issues.
Home-based senior and personal-support-worker care agencies; typically $150K–$2.5M; employment-heavy asset or share sales where client-service contracts and PSW staffing drive value more than hard assets.
Steady acquisition activity in the vocational-training sector; typically $200K–$3M, valued on program enrolment and tuition-revenue continuity.
†Typical patterns across Canadian deals — not a quote or advice; every deal is confirmed on its own facts.
No open-ended hourly surprises — the cost is confirmed in writing before any work begins.
| Type of work | Fee | How it's confirmed |
|---|---|---|
| Straightforward purchase or sale | Starting from $3,388.87 Our charges · taxes included | Confirmed in writing once we see the agreement. |
| Larger or more complex deal | Quoted to scope | Short call → fixed written quote before any work begins. |
| Searches, filings & third-party fees | At cost | Itemized on your invoice, not marked up. |
A single-location daycare, tutoring centre or home-care agency owner selling to a hands-on buyer, with straightforward staff and enrolment continuity.
Start my file →A private school or camp sale bundling real property, or a private career college sale involving ministry registration and tuition-protection requirements.
Book a consultation →Not sure which you are? That's our job to figure out, not yours. As a rough guide, most deals under a couple of million dollars are the first kind — above that, you're usually in Mergers & Acquisitions territory.
Generally, no. Licences and registrations in this family, a daycare's CCEYA licence, a private school's ministry filing, a career college's registration, are typically tied to the operating entity, so the new owner usually needs to obtain its own approval before continuing to operate. This is usually the step that determines the actual closing timeline.
Because most businesses in this family work directly with children or vulnerable adults, continuity of background-check and vulnerable-sector screening practices for staff is a standard, recurring diligence item. It's treated as seriously as the licensing itself, not as an afterthought.
These are typically treated as a liability that transfers with the business, so reconciling exactly what's owed to existing families and how it will be honoured is usually addressed as its own specific term in the purchase agreement, not left implicit.
Not quite the same way. A home-care agency's obligations more often run through service-provider agreements with the relevant health-system body, which typically require consent or re-tendering on a change of ownership, rather than a single facility licence. The underlying theme of regulator-paced timing is similar, even though the specific mechanism differs.
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Tell us about your education & care deal — we'll point you the right way and confirm the cost in writing before any work begins.