Feds Sue Old Elmhurst Preschool

ELMHURST, IL – The federal government has sued the now-defunct Elmhurst Academy for Early Learning,

In its lawsuit, the U.S. Department of Labor alleges the academy, which closed in 2021, failed to properly handle employees' health insurance and retirement contributions.

The academy's owner, Colleen Odegaard, was also named as a defendant. She did not immediately return messages for comment Friday.

Odegaard, who is representing herself, has denied the allegations, according to court documents.

In July 2021, the academy's health insurer, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, canceled insurance coverage retroactively to May 2021 because of missed premium payments, the lawsuit said.

Despite the cancelation, the academy withheld more than $10,000 from employees' pay for insurance premiums and kept the money in its bank account, according to the lawsuit.

For certain payroll periods from 2016 to 2021, the preschool withheld $19,000 from employees' pay for contributions to their independent retirement accounts, but the academy never sent the money to the accounts, instead spending it on the preschool's operations, court documents state.

Under federal law, such contributions are supposed to be remitted to the plan soon after they are received.

From 2016 to 2021, the academy repeatedly failed to send tens of thousands of dollars in contributions to employees' retirement accounts in a timely manner, the lawsuit said.

According to court records, the federal government had trouble notifying Odegaard about the lawsuit. Odegaard didn't respond to the lawsuit, which was filed in December, until four months later.

Odegaard is listed as the sole owner of a house in Wayne that is assessed at nearly $800,000, according to DuPage County records.

In an interview last year, Odegaard said the school was suffering from staffing shortages and delayed payments from the state government.

The academy, which started in 1981, was at 212 W. Lake St.