Couple who got $105,000 bill from Chicago Public Schools over residency dispute fights back in court
A family is fighting a $105,000 tuition bill from Chicago Public Schools after the district determined three of the children did not live in the city while attending selective enrollment schools. The CPS inspector general’s office called the case “especially egregious” in its recent annual report.
Dr. Edward Huang, an infectious disease specialist, and Kim Chhay, who has worked as a hospital pharmacist, filed a complaint in Cook County court last month asking a judge to reverse a Chicago Board of Education decision to seek tuition reimbursement and kick their son out of his West Rogers Park classical school. The couple’s attorney, Steven Glink, said the board reached conclusions for its own convenience in this case.
“The board did not produce one witness to refute the fact that they lived in Chicago. I had three witnesses — the dad, the mom, and there was a sister-in-law — say they all lived in Chicago during the disputed time,” Glink said.
“In court, I’m hoping the judge will decide the case based on the facts that are and are not in the record.”
In their court paperwork, Huang and Chhay say they resided together in Skokie until 2010, when Chhay moved in with her brother and his family at their house in Chicago’s Sauganash neighborhood because of “tension” in the Huang home. Chhay says three of her children followed her to her brother’s house and lived there for varying amounts of time between 2011 and 2019.
The couple’s older daughter enrolled at Edison Regional Gifted Center in 2012 and graduated from Northside College Prep in 2020, records show. Another daughter started attending Decatur Classical School in 2019, while a son studied at Beaubien Elementary School before enrolling at Decatur. A fourth child stayed behind in Skokie and attended Niles West High School, according to the court filings.
CPS said enrollment documents for the children include a lease for Chhay to rent space in her brother’s 1,300-square-foot home for $1,000 a month, covering water, gas and electricity; and various bills for the Sauganash house addressed to “K Chhay.” Chhay said she and the children lived at the Sauganash home into July 2019, and that was the address used for CPS enrollment during the contested time, records show.
Huang, meanwhile, continued to reside in Skokie, and purchased a home in Chicago’s Norwood Park East neighborhood in the summer of 2019. He said the family discovered water damage at the Norwood Park home soon after they moved in, so they temporarily decamped to the Skokie home in September 2019, court records show.
Children must live within city limits to attend CPS and establish residency by July 1 before the start of the school year. Violators can be charged tuition as determined by the district. A Huang residency hearing was held virtually in October, at which a Northside College Prep staff member testified she reported her suspicions to the CPS Office of the Inspector General in 2019 after noticing a Skokie address on a family check for student fees.
At the hearing, chief investigator Tracy Larson said seven surveillances were conducted in this case, starting in 2019, with investigators observing cars registered to Chhay and Huang at the Skokie address each of the six times they were watching the home in the early morning.
Larson said an investigator handed an interview letter to Chhay outside the Skokie home in January 2020. She reportedly had three children with her at the time. Investigators did not see Chhay at her brother’s Sauganash house during surveillance, according to the hearing report.
At the hearing, Glink argued the burden of proof was misplaced on the parents. He said no surveillances were conducted before 2019. No Sauganash or Skokie neighbors were interviewed, Glink said, and no witnesses came forward to say Chhay and her children did not live at the Sauganash house.
In her analysis, the hearing officer wrote “it is more likely than not” that Chhay “provided misleading documents to falsely establish residency” at her brother’s Sauganash home. The hearing officer noted that the “K Chhay” name on electric bills submitted for enrollment could denote Kendra Chhay, Chhay’s sister-in-law, as the Sauganash lease agreement for Kim Chhay did not require her to pay her own electric bill.
“In reviewing Ms. Chhay’s actions for the relevant time periods to try and determine her intent as to residency, what stands out is the span of time that she used the (Sauganash) address for school enrollments, clearly a temporary address as it was her brother’s home, and her failure to establish any permanency in Chicago,” the hearing officer wrote. “Skokie remained the family’s hub and permanent residence.”
The district had sought about $150,000 in tuition before the hearing officer determined the couple had established city residency with the 2019 purchase of the Norwood Park home, Glink said. Yet the Sauganash address was “fraudulently” used to enroll the two younger Huang children for the 2019-20 school year, the hearing officer determined.
At its Nov. 17 monthly board meeting, the Chicago Board of Education adopted the hearing officer’s findings and moved to collect $105,186.49 in tuition while disenrolling the two younger children from their school and banning them from attending selective enrollment schools in the future. The hearing officer noted students can be ineligible for selective enrollment schools if there is a finding of fraudulent enrollment.
In its annual report released this month, Inspector General Will Fletcher’s office called the couple’s case “especially egregious” because “the family took highly sought-after seats ... away from Chicago residents that should have had the opportunity to attend, and benefit from, selective enrollment schools.”
A CPS official informed Huang and Chhay in a Nov. 23 letter their two younger children will be transferred to a Norwood Park elementary school on Jan. 31 unless other arrangements are made. Glink said the district is allowing the couple’s daughter to stay at her school to finish the eighth grade this spring, and he hopes to reach an agreement to let the boy finish the semester as well.
“If they say no, then I will file an emergency motion for a restraining order and let the judge decide,” Glink said. The next court date is in April.
