KKCS was founded in 1916 by the Chinese Merchants Association (the On Leong Merchants Association) to establish an educational institution to help maintain Chinese heritage among overseas Chinese. The school is the oldest one of its kind in Boston and one of the longest-running Chinese schools on the East Coast. The School became a non-profit in 1981 in order to ensure the sustainability of the School as a community resource. Through its long and distinguished history, KKCS has provided Chinese language and cultural education, academic support, and recreational programs for more than 20,000 children of Chinese immigrants in the Boston/Greater Boston/Eastern Massachusetts region. Operating after school, on Saturdays and Sundays, and during the summer, KKCS fills a critical need for quality out-of-school programming for age 5 to 18.