Join us

A community of early learning schools

It’s time to change the way we educate children.

YIA Schools is an American-inspired community of schools united by one belief: children should learn to think, build, and innovate — not just memorize. Member schools share one curriculum, one platform, and one entrepreneurial mission.

Join the communitySee what members get
One belief. Many schools.American-inspired · Entrepreneurial by design

The problem

Early learning is the foundation of everything that comes next. Most schools aren't built to deliver it.

The failure shows up twice. Too many children arrive at kindergarten below readiness standards — and along the way, they were never exposed to the magic of the early years: the wonder, the making, the discovery. Children are losing on both ends.

Curriculum stuck in the past

PDF books, binders, and one-size-fits-all programs built to manage a day — not develop thinkers. One lesson for every child, and too many children entering kindergarten below standards.

A new workforce

Many teachers are new to child development. Today they get a binder instead of support.

Leaders can't see in

Without coaching tools, there's no way to know if the curriculum is being followed.

Hard to stand out

Schools compete for families with nothing distinct to show — no story, no mark of quality.

The shift

YIA Schools was founded to change that.

A community of schools united by one belief: early learning should build innovators. Members share the curriculum, the platform, and the mission — and none of them do it alone.

The YIA Story

Before we asked schools to join, we built our own.

YIA Schools wasn't designed in an office. It was built by founder Marnie Forestieri — operator, curriculum innovator, author, and TEDx speaker — across two decades of opening, running, and filling real schools.

Founding question 01

How do you scale a brand — with quality?

Most school brands grow by adding logos, not by protecting standards. Marnie had the playbook that made quality repeatable; Bharath spent his career building products that scale — from Hadoop at Yahoo! to data science at Netflix. YIA Schools is their answer: a platform where the curriculum, the coaching, and the standard travel together, so a brand can grow without the quality thinning out.

Founding question 02

How do we protect the early years — the foundation for everything that comes next?

The early years are where thinkers, makers, and leaders are formed, and where the least infrastructure exists to do it well. YIA Schools exists to change that: a community of schools with the curriculum, the training, and the visibility to give every child a foundation built for what comes next.

The belief came first

Every child is born curious — and the small choices adults make every day either protect that flame or quietly put it out. That argument, made in a TEDx talk seen by more than 500,000 people, is the reason YIA Schools exists: so more schools protect it.

Marnie Forestieri

Marnie Forestieri

Co-Founder & CEO

Early education operator, curriculum innovator, author of 13 books, and TEDx speaker. Co-Creator of the Innovation Advantage™ Curriculum.

Bharath Mundlapudi

Bharath Mundlapudi

Co-Founder

Serial entrepreneur, technologist, and builder. Part of the original team at Yahoo! that built Hadoop, former architect in Netflix's Data Science group, and co-founder, President & CTO of Orzota. His mission: advance humanity through discovery, innovation, and sustainability.

Curriculum advisory

Dr. Debby Mitchell

Curriculum Advisor

Sarah Sprinkel

Curriculum Advisor

The track record

Two decades of building schools, behind one community.

20+
Years operating
20+
Schools developed
3
Successful exits
13
Books published
1,000+
Educators trained
500K+
TEDx views

As featured in  PBS · Orlando Sentinel · Oprah Magazine · Hispanic Executive · Yahoo Finance · Tampa Bay Times · WFTV Channel 9 · GrowFL

Membership

Six parts. One shared mission.

Everything a member school needs to deliver the Innovation Advantage™ — from the brand on the door to the lesson in the classroom.

01

YIA Schools Brand

The Powered by YIA™ badge, brand guidelines, and ready-made marketing assets — a mark of quality that helps your school stand out to families.

02

YIA Curriculum

The Innovation Advantage™ Curriculum — digital, school-wide, and built to develop entrepreneurial mindsets. Every lesson follows CAPE and is ready to deliver on day one.

03

YIA Platform

The connected platform where member schools run: curriculum delivery, coaching tools, and children's portfolios and assessments in one place.

04

YIA Teacher Training

Structured onboarding for teachers new to child development, plus professional learning connected to the curriculum they actually deliver.

05

YIA Space Design

Learning environments designed for hands-on innovation — spaces where children can build, test, display, and revisit their work.

06

YIA Community

A network of educators and school leaders delivering the Innovation Advantage™ — sharing practice, solving problems together, never growing alone.

Part 01 · YIA Schools Brand

A brand families recognize. A story worth telling.

Member schools display the Powered by YIA™ badge and tell the Innovation Advantage™ story — backed by brand guidelines and ready-made marketing assets, so standing out in the local market doesn't depend on building a brand from scratch.

Powered by YIA™

The badge member schools display — a mark of quality for families.

Brand guidelines

Clear rules for using the brand consistently and confidently.

Marketing assets

Ready-made materials to reach families and grow enrollment.

Why it matters

Families choose between schools that all look the same. A recognizable mark and a distinct story change the conversation.

Part 02 · YIA Curriculum

A better way to deliver early learning curriculum.

Replace binders, books, and scattered PDFs with one digital, school-wide curriculum. Every teacher works from the same source. Every lesson is ready to deliver — no guesswork required to get started.

Ready on day one

Structured CAPE lessons every teacher can deliver from the start.

One standard

The same innovation-based curriculum in every classroom, school-wide.

Built to innovate

The Innovation Advantage™ — designed for 21st-century skills, not memorization.

Why it matters

Early learning is the foundation of everything that comes next — the curriculum it runs on shouldn't live in a filing cabinet.

Part 03 · YIA Platform

The platform where the whole school runs.

The platform connects everything: teachers deliver the curriculum from it, leaders coach from it, and each child's learning is documented in it. Observations are embedded and tied to the curriculum being taught, so leaders see whether it's being followed in every classroom. Embedded child assessments show teachers where each child actually is — so learning can be individualized instead of one-size-fits-all — and portfolios build automatically from daily practice.

Curriculum delivery

Every lesson, live in the classroom from one connected source.

Coaching tools

Embedded observations that show leaders how teaching is going.

Portfolios & assessments

Embedded assessments that power differentiated instruction — meeting each child where they are, so they reach kindergarten ready — and portfolios that build themselves.

Why it matters

Curriculum quality depends on teaching quality — and with a new workforce, coaching isn't optional. You can't coach what you can't see.

Part 04 · YIA Teacher Training

Teachers grow where they work — and never alone.

Many teachers enter early education new to child development. YIA gives them a simple transition: structured onboarding, professional learning connected to the curriculum they deliver, and coaching feedback tied to their real practice. Growth is continuous, relevant, and never solitary.

Why it matters

The fastest way to better early learning is better-supported teachers — especially the new ones.

Part 05 · YIA Space Design

Classrooms designed for hands-on innovation.

CAPE lessons ask children to build, test, and improve — so the environment has to make that possible. YIA Space Design shapes classrooms around hands-on learning: materials children can reach, room to make and remake, and space to display work that's still in progress. The environment supports the curriculum instead of fighting it.

Why it matters

Children can't learn to innovate in a room built for sitting still. Hands-on learning needs a space built for making.

Part 06 · YIA Community

A community united by a belief.

YIA Schools is more than a product — it’s a community of schools that believe we need to change the way we educate children. Teachers meet educators delivering the same curriculum. Leaders compare notes with leaders on the same mission. Best practices travel across the community instead of staying locked in one classroom.

Why it matters

Most schools solve every problem alone. Member schools don't have to.

The Innovation Advantage™

The future won't be built by children who memorize. It will be built by children who innovate.

Most early learning curriculums were built to manage children through a day. The Innovation Advantage™ Curriculum was inspired by the American spirit of innovation — to inspire the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs. Every lesson follows CAPE.

C

Challenge

Children start with a real problem worth solving.

A

Analyze

They explore it, question it, and think it through.

P

Produce

They make something: an idea, a creation, a solution.

E

Evaluate

They reflect on what worked and what they'd do differently.

Four steps. Every lesson. It’s the same cycle entrepreneurs run every day: find a real problem, understand it, build a solution, and make it better. From the earliest years, children learn to think like innovators — because early learning is where innovators are made.

CAPE in action

One lesson: The Bird Feeder Challenge.

Ages 3–6
C · Challenge

"The birds outside our window have nothing to eat this winter. How can we help them?"

A · Analyze

Children watch which birds visit, talk about what they eat, and test which materials can hold seeds.

P · Produce

Each child designs and builds their own bird feeder from recycled materials.

E · Evaluate

They watch which feeders birds actually use — and redesign the ones that didn't work.

One simple lesson. Children observe, build, test, and improve — practising the way innovators think, long before they can spell the word.

The differentiator

Each part is useful alone.
Together, they change how a school teaches.

Other concepts hand you a binder and a training day. YIA member schools run everything on one connected platform — so the belief on the door becomes the practice in the classroom, every day.

Curriculum

makes teaching easy.

Coaching

gives leaders confidence.

Assessments

individualize learning.

Growth

closes the loop.

Curriculum, coaching, individualized learning, and teacher growth — connected. That's the advantage.

Tested in real classrooms

We do it ourselves first.

Every strategy, system, and lesson in YIA Schools was run in real schools — across different buildings, markets, and business models — before it became part of the community.

Custom concept · Lake Nona

A STEM preschool concept for one of America's innovation communities.

Selected by the Lake Nona Institute to develop a custom STEM preschool concept, built alongside university professors and early childhood experts — one of the nation's first STEM-focused preschool curricula, launched in Laureate Park.

Research collaboration · Orange County

Maker-centered learning across 25 centers, with Harvard Project Zero researchers.

Sponsored by the Early Learning Coalition of Orange County, the "Empowering Communities to Shape Their Worlds" initiative brought educators from 25 early learning centers into hands-on, inquiry-driven practice — covered by the Orlando Sentinel and WFTV.

Turnaround · Oviedo

A foreclosed building became the blueprint for a network.

A struggling independent preschool in a competitive market, rebuilt around the Innovation Advantage™ Curriculum and leadership training — the Oviedo campus became the operating model the Young Innovators network was built on.

First member school · Fishhawk

A small center finds its identity in a saturated market.

Ebenezer Academy adopted the Innovation Advantage™ Curriculum through the licensing program, repositioning as a creative learning hub built around STEM and design thinking — the first member school, still running on the platform today.

Powered by YIA™ · For families

Your child learns to think, create, and lead.

The Innovation Advantage™ develops six things every child carries for life — the foundations of an entrepreneurial mindset.

Think critically

Strong thinking and problem-solving skills.

Ask meaningful questions

Curiosity and a love of discovery.

Solve real problems

Learning applied to authentic challenges.

Create with purpose

Creativity and confidence, hands-on.

Collaborate with others

Teamwork, communication, and empathy.

Confidence to lead

Resilience, independence, and leadership.

Powered by YIA™The badge member schools display. It signals that a school teaches the Innovation Advantage™ Curriculum — a mark of quality families recognize.

Why it matters

Built for the people who run the system.

School owners & operators

Your school runs on its curriculum — and on teachers newer to the field than ever. YIA gives you the complete concept: a brand families recognize, a curriculum any teacher can deliver, and a platform that shows you it's being followed.

  • A brand and story that stand out to families
  • Easy for any teacher to deliver
  • Followed in every classroom

Government & agencies

Set one standard across many schools. YIA delivers a consistent, future-ready curriculum at scale — with real visibility into how it's taught.

  • One standard, every classroom
  • Teaching quality made visible
  • Future-ready skills at scale

Raising Innovators · The podcast

Conversations on building, leading, and disrupting early education.

42 episodes with the operators, founders, and educators doing the work — hosted by YIA Schools co-founder Marnie Forestieri.

Apple PodcastsSpotifyYouTube

Common questions

Before you join.

What is YIA Schools?

YIA Schools is an American-inspired community of early learning schools that believe we need to change the way we educate children. Member schools share the Innovation Advantage™ Curriculum, a connected platform, teacher training, space design guidance, and a community of educators on the same mission.

Who can join?

Existing early learning schools that want to upgrade what they deliver, founders opening new schools, and government agencies or organizations setting a standard across many schools. Membership is built for school owners, operators, and the leaders responsible for quality.

What's included in membership?

Six connected parts: the YIA Schools brand (including the Powered by YIA™ badge, brand guidelines, and marketing assets), the Innovation Advantage™ Curriculum, the YIA platform, teacher training, space design, and the YIA community.

Is this a franchise?

No. Member schools keep their own name, identity, and ownership. Membership adds the Powered by YIA™ badge, the curriculum, the platform, and the training behind it — a mark of quality on top of the school you've already built.

What is the Innovation Advantage™ Curriculum?

An innovation-based early learning curriculum built to develop entrepreneurial mindsets. Every lesson follows the CAPE strategy — Challenge, Analyze, Produce, Evaluate — so children think, make, and reflect instead of just completing activities. It was written, tested, and refined in real classrooms at Young Innovators Academy.

Do you help member schools with marketing?

Yes. Membership includes brand guidelines and ready-made marketing assets, plus the Innovation Advantage™ story and the Powered by YIA™ badge — so standing out to families doesn't depend on building a brand from scratch.

One belief.
Many schools.
Better early learning.

Join a community of schools changing the way we educate children — and get the brand, the curriculum, the platform, the training, the space design, and the community to do it.

Join the communitySee what members get