How Remote Work Is Redrawing the Preschool Map

If you’re weighing a preschool franchise, you’ve probably asked the question every careful investor asks. Where will the young families be five years from now? For decades the answer barely moved. Jobs anchored parents to a short list of big metros, and schools grew up around the jobs. Remote work loosened that anchor, and the moving trucks have been rolling ever since. The families stepping out of them are young, they’re settling in places that weren’t on many radars in 2019, and in a lot of those places they’re arriving faster than anyone can add preschool seats.

Where the Moving Trucks Are Headed

The clearest picture comes from the companies that do the hauling. United Van Lines’ 49th annual movers study found that the top reason Americans moved across state lines in 2025 was to be closer to family, followed by a new job or company transfer. Retirement came third. Those are family-driven moves, and they point in a consistent direction. South Carolina and Alabama have ranked among the top inbound states for six straight years, and the study calls out a broad shift toward smaller cities and towns where housing is more affordable.

U-Haul’s one-way truck data tells a similar story. Texas was the No. 1 growth state of 2025, its seventh time on top in ten years, with Florida, North Carolina and Tennessee right behind it. Different companies, different methods, same map. Families keep heading south, and they keep choosing the edges over the urban core.

Remote Work Changed Where Young Families Can Live

None of this movement works without flexible work. About one in five private-sector workers teleworked at least part of the week in 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and that rate has held steady for three years even as return-to-office policies made headlines. A parent who commutes twice a week instead of five can live forty minutes farther out, so the search for a bigger yard and a lower mortgage can range far past the old commuting zone.

The movers study ties the pattern to a lasting preference for lower-density living that took hold during the pandemic, reinforced by housing costs that keep pushing buyers toward more affordable regions. For a family with a two-year-old, the math is simple. The town with the new subdivision and the shorter commute wins, and the preschool question comes up about five minutes after the boxes are unpacked!

Fast-Growing Counties Are Short on Preschool Seats

The Census Bureau’s county estimates show where all those trucks ended up. Between 2024 and 2025, nine of the ten fastest-growing counties with at least 20,000 people were in the South, along with 45 of the top 50, many of them along the southeast coast in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia. Inside the biggest metros, the fastest growth showed up on the outer edges, a pattern the bureau says is especially pronounced in Texas. Meanwhile, the 50 counties with a million or more residents lost a combined 637,000 people to domestic migration in a single year.

Childcare capacity can’t sprint the way housing can. A builder can frame a subdivision in months, but a licensed preschool needs land, zoning, construction, state licensing and a trained staff before the first family walks through the door. When a county adds thousands of young households in a couple of years, waitlists at the existing programs grow long before new seats appear. That gap is a daily frustration for parents. For the right owner, it’s the opening.

How We Match New Preschools to Growing Markets

Site selection is the heart of our franchise model, and it’s built for exactly this kind of map. Before we approve a location, our development team runs a full demographic analysis and looks for at least 5,000 children within a four-mile radius of the proposed site. That standard keeps a new school out of markets that only look busy and puts it where enrollment can support it for the long haul.

Every owner also receives a protected five-mile territory, so a fast-growing market stays yours as it fills in. If you want the deeper story on how we read a market, Identifying Prime Locations for Your Preschool Franchise walks through the process, and we’ve explained why we protect a five-mile territory around every school.

The model has a long runway behind it. We’ve been doing this for 56 years without a single school closing due to failure, and Franchise Business Review named us to its Top 200 franchises list for 2026. From site selection to opening day typically runs 12 to 16 months, with our team handling the demographic research, construction coordination and training along the way, and a dedicated business coach stays with you after the doors open.

Ready to Follow the Map?

The moving trucks aren’t slowing down, and neither is the demand they tow behind them. If you’ve been waiting for the right moment to look at preschool ownership, the migration data makes a strong argument for this one. Request franchise information and our team will walk you through the markets we’re watching and what opening a school in one of them looks like!