How much is an after-school program worth?

Short answer: an after-school program is worth its site contracts and its enrollment per site — not its headcount on the first week of September. No realized trade multiple exists in our data, so this is category data, labeled as such. Programs anchored in school or district agreements transfer; programs anchored in one principal's goodwill often do not. See After-School Programs and the valuation calculator.

The number

No trade-specific realized multiple for after-school programs appears in BizBuySell's trailing-five-year table, so category data only. The size ladder from the IBBA Market Pulse, Q2 2026 is the frame for most small sales: 2.0× SDE under a $500,000 price, 2.8× at $500,000–$1M, 3.1× at $1M–$2M, then 4.8× EBITDA at $2–5M and 5.8× EBITDA at $5–50M. Size buys multiple because size usually means a team, systems, and less key-person risk.

For context only, large listed Education companies trade at 9.26× EV/EBITDA (Damodaran Online, January 2026). That is a proxy ceiling, not your price: public buyers get liquidity, audited books, and no owner behind the counter. Your buyer prices risk and opportunity cost at Main Street scale.

Worked example (assumptions labeled):

• Revenue: $400,000 across three school sites.
• SDE margin: 25% — an assumption; part-time counselor payroll dominates costs.
• SDE: $400,000 × 25% = $100,000.
• Multiple: 2.0× SDE (IBBA Market Pulse, Q2 2026, under-$500,000 price band).
• Math: $100,000 × 2.0 = $200,000.

Grant-funded programs need a harder look: revenue restricted to a grant that ends, or cannot transfer to a for-profit buyer, is not revenue a buyer can price the same way.

How buyers actually value an after-school program

Buyers value you site by site. For each school: enrolled students, price per week, staff ratio cost, and the agreement behind it.

• Site agreements — written district or school contracts with terms and renewal dates vs. a verbal yes from a principal who may transfer in June. Assignability is the whole question.
• Enrollment vs. site capacity — and the September-to-May curve: enrollment that melts by January is worth less than flat enrollment.
• Transportation — owned vans/buses, driver licensing and insurance, and routes: transport is both your moat and your biggest liability line.
• Staffing — background-checked counselors, site directors per location, and turnover in a part-time workforce.
• Summer conversion — a program that converts school-year families into summer camp enrollment owns a second season; one that goes dark June to August does not.
• Funding mix — parent-pay vs. district-paid vs. grant seats, each with different collection risk.

What raises the price — and what kills it

Raises it: multi-year site contracts that assign; waiting lists at flagship schools; site directors who run their buildings; summer camp conversion above a third of families; clean safety and licensing record.

Kills it: one school as 60% of revenue on a handshake; grant revenue ending within a year treated as permanent; owner as the only licensed driver and site troubleshooter; enrollment counted in September and priced as if it lasts to May; background-check or incident documentation gaps a district audit would find.

Move your number

Make parent-pay painless: monthly autopay instead of weekly check-chasing protects margin in a thin-margin trade — the Finix payments team can price card vs. ACH for your ticket size. Run enrollment as a pipeline: inquiry follow-up, waitlist offers the day a seat opens, and summer-camp conversion campaigns handled by the ClaroPro team's systems instead of a site director's sticky notes. Centralize the records: attendance, authorized pickups, incidents, and billing in one system across sites — a Nova engineering team integration or build — is what lets a buyer (or a district) audit you and like what they find. Run your sites: valuation calculator for after-school programs.

This is an educational framework with shown math, not an appraisal; a real price is set by a real buyer on a specific day. Every caveat here works for the owner: it keeps you from overpaying for enrollment that evaporates by January, underselling programs with real contracts underneath them, or buying grant revenue that legally cannot come with you. Show the math, check the contract, then sign — in that order, for your protection.