Hundreds of Chicago families are facing a child care crisis after Sonnets Academy, a private preschool and daycare provider, suddenly closed its Lincoln Park and West Loop locations. The company announced the closures in a late Friday email, leaving parents with no immediate care options and approximately 60 employees without jobs.
Families have been unable to retrieve their children's personal belongings from the shuttered facilities and are uncertain if they will receive refunds for prepaid tuition. The closures came just months after the company's parent entity, Great Education Partners, LLC, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Key Takeaways
- Sonnets Academy closed its two remaining Chicago campuses in Lincoln Park and West Loop with no advance notice to parents or staff.
- An estimated 60 employees lost their jobs, and hundreds of families were left without child care.
- The parent company, Great Education Partners, LLC, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April, citing significant liabilities.
- Parents are unable to access children's belongings, including clothing, supplies, and medical items like EpiPens, and are unsure about tuition refunds.
- Prominent Chicago business figures were listed as investors in the company, though a spokesperson stated they had no operational role.
Sudden Closures Leave Families and Staff in Disarray
The announcement from Sonnets Academy management arrived in parents' inboxes late on a Friday, citing "serious ongoing financial issues, including low fall enrollment" as the reason for the immediate shutdown. The timing of the email left families with only a weekend to find alternative arrangements, a process that typically requires months of planning and school visits.
Joshua Walden, whose daughter attended the Lincoln Park school, described the profound impact of the decision. "This completely reorganized probably 100 families’ lives overnight," he said. "It’s not like a local coffee shop shutting down. These were educators we’d known for years."
Staff members reported learning of the closures simultaneously with the parents, receiving the same email without any prior warning. This left a team of around 60 teachers and support staff unemployed unexpectedly.
A Pattern of Abrupt Shutdowns
Sonnets Academy previously operated a third location in Chicago's River North neighborhood. That campus also closed abruptly in October 2024. At that time, parents and staff at the remaining Lincoln Park and West Loop locations were reportedly assured that their schools were financially stable and would continue operating.
Financial Turmoil and Corporate Background
The company behind Sonnets Academy is Great Education Partners, LLC, a business registered in Delaware. Public records reveal a history of financial distress leading up to the closures. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April, signaling an attempt to reorganize its finances under court supervision.
The bankruptcy filing painted a grim picture of the company's financial health. Court documents listed assets of less than $50,000 against liabilities ranging from $1 million to $10 million. A restructuring plan was approved by the court in September, just weeks before the final closures.
Notable Investors Connected to Company
City records connect several prominent Chicago business leaders to Great Education Partners, LLC. Members of the LLC have included Michael Golden and Thaddeus Wong, co-founders of the real estate firm @properties, as well as Golden's wife, Kelly Golden, and landlord Michael Lerner.
When contacted for comment, a spokesperson for @properties clarified Golden and Wong's connection.
"Mike Golden and Thad Wong were investors in Sonnets. They had no role in the operations of the centers."
Further legal issues surrounded one of the company's members. In June 2024, a Cook County judge appointed a receiver to manage real estate assets tied to Michael Lerner after a lawsuit from his mother alleged he diverted over $10 million from family properties. Court filings in that case identified Sonnets Academy as one of Lerner's business interests and noted it had been delinquent on rent for years.
Parents Face Logistical and Emotional Hardship
The immediate aftermath of the closure has been chaotic for affected families. Many parents now face the challenge of balancing full-time jobs with unexpected child care duties. Monthly tuition at the West Loop campus was approximately $3,000 per child, and some families had already paid for the upcoming month.
The Scramble for New Child Care
Rachel Quinn, a parent with two children at the West Loop location, highlighted the financial and emotional strain. "I was paying $4,600 a month for my kids to go there," she stated. "Some families prepaid tuition and couldn’t get their money back. Teachers who’d been there 10, 12 years got nothing. To be cut off like that is inhumane."
Parents quickly organized to support one another, creating shared spreadsheets to track open spots at nearby daycares and connect with displaced teachers for temporary nanny shares. However, the search for permanent, high-quality child care in Chicago remains a significant hurdle.
Belongings and Memories Locked Away
Adding to the frustration, parents have been locked out of the facilities, unable to retrieve essential items. These include children's clothing, diapers, shoes, and important developmental binders that tracked their milestones. One family reported that their daughter's life-saving EpiPen was still inside the building, with no response from school management to their calls.
Ashley Hodges, whose 18-month-old son attended the Lincoln Park school, spoke about the emotional impact on her child. "He loved his friends and teachers. You can’t explain this to a 1 1/2-year-old. You just hope he’s resilient," she said. "There’s no time to even be sad, but we are sad for him." The sudden loss of a familiar environment and trusted caregivers is a major disruption for young children.
The lack of communication and perceived callousness from the owners has been a central point of frustration for the community. "If it’s actually people in our community who own this, that’s really frustrating," Walden commented. "It’s a s—-y thing to do to your neighbors."