Child Care Associates

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
840587601
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2024
Official website data refreshed
Jun 2026
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Fort Worth, TX, USA
Phone
(817) 838-0055
Rating
88
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$147,761,673
Expenses
$141,426,357
Assets
$32,124,116
Liabilities
$5,176,142

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

33 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • KARA D WADDELL SEE SCH J (PRESIDENT/CEO)

Highest reported compensation

  • KARA D WADDELL SEE SCH J (PRESIDENT/CEO): $827,030 total reported compensation
  • KARANAE K DUANE SEE SCH J (CFO): $494,689 total reported compensation
  • JOANNA CRAIN (CHIEF OF STAFF): $226,113 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

From the Beginning Child Care Associates helps everyone succeed with high-quality early learning and child care. We give each child great learning tools, help their families pay for school, and train early learning teachers. Our whole-child approach focuses not only on education but also health, nutrition, and family support.teachers _,_ quality child care, and **better state systems**. Meet Our Team Help Build the Future of Wonder at CCA. Child Care Associates helps everyone succeed with high-quality early learning and child care. We look at the big picture to make things better for everyone. [.

What it reported doing in 2024

North central Texas child care services (ccs): child care associates supports working families and parents completing degrees and workforce credentials by offsetting the cost of quality child care through child care scholarships. Cca serves the following counties in north central Texas: allen, arlington, carrollton, dallas, denton, fort worth, frisco, garland, grand prairie, irving, lewisville, mckinney, mesquite, plano, and richardson. Cca served approximately 5,200 families and 8,000 children via 696 child care provider partners in the program year. Additionally, ccs improves the quality of child care in tarrant county via our team of Texas rising star mentors. Child care quality is systematically improved along the state's child care quality rating system in areas such as training, credentials, instruction, teacher-child interactions, curriculum, learning environments, health, safety and nutrition. Ccs increases the child care scholarship amounts paid to child care providers based assessments of quality as well as invests in child care quality improvement.child care innovation: child care associates leads and collaborates to develop the early childhood system that supports quality, mixed delivery system of early learning and child care services, supports innovative solutions to build a corps of quality early childhood professionals, and supports parents as leaders in their children's education. Cca operates the center for the early educator helping to build the north Texas early care and education educators needed in the region. Cca also operates pilots and research studies that help inform innovative solutions. Furthermore, cca helps to educate policymakers and leaders to shape policy that strengthen the early education system.

Operating model

Revenue model
Grant-funded. 89% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.

The verdict

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 84
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 100
  • Sustainability: 41
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 92.9%; rating input score 93
  • Program expense ratio: 96.1%; rating input score 96
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 94.1%; rating input score 94; 28th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 6 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 100
    • Compensation committee: Pass
    • Independent consultant: Pass
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
    • Written employment contract: Pass
    • Compensation survey or study: Pass
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 4.3%; rating input score 53; 53rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.23; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.16; rating input score 74; 74th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 2.8%; rating input score 42; 42nd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 8.6% per year; rating input score 100; 67th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 6.7% per year; rating input score 100; 58th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 6.3% per year; rating input score 100; 46th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • What they do: 1 operating location identified
  • Where the money goes: 92.9% of revenue deployed · 96.1% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 16 of 16 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $135.9M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $827K · 33 people listed · 6 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $4.7M reported
  • Consistency: 32 of 33 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes grants and executive pay
  • Filing history: 14 filing years from 2010 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 18 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 6 filed related-organization links
  • Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
  • People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.
  • Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 7/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 53/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 42/100.