In its January/February 2012 issue, Exchange magazine has listed Stepping Stone School as the 21st largest for-profit child care organization in North America.

The list, which is based on the licensed capacities of all centers, included many publicly traded companies and large chains. Stepping Stone School was among the highest placed privately owned organizations.

“We are very pleased to be part of this list,” said founder and executive director Rhonda Paver. “Stepping Stone School remains a tight-knit, family-owned organization where we are small enough to be vigilant and responsive to our families’ needs. We feel that we have so many advantages over the chains and franchises, but it also feels nice to know that we are growing in our ability to educate and care for more children.”

The listing also was part of an article examining the past 25 years and the current state of child care. In it, Paver was quoted regarding employers’ views on the work/family connection, “Corporate America has become more aware of the need to take work and family issues into account in recruiting and maintaining their work force. Over the last 25 years, they have moved from creating their own onsite child care centers to turning over management of those centers to ‘professional’ child care providers to now subsidizing child care by creating corporate partnerships that provide their employees with discounted tuition and priority placement.”

Stepping Stone School maintains dozens of such corporate partnerships.