Homeschooling in Illinois

Illinois has no deadline and no start date, so you can withdraw on any school day, including in the middle of a semester. Send the notice before the first day you keep your child home, so those days are not counted as absences.

What the letter says

• Your child's full name, grade, and school
• That you are withdrawing your child to homeschool
• The date homeschooling begins
• Your signature and the date

The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) recommends keeping a copy of the letter. It also encourages sending the same letter to your Regional Office of Education, the county office for your schools. ISBE no longer collects homeschool forms. Some Regional Offices, and Chicago Public Schools for Chicago residents, offer a voluntary form, and filling it out is optional.

Before you go, ask the school for copies of report cards, test scores, and any special education evaluations. They are easiest to get while your child is still on the roll.

Illinois has no recordkeeping rule, and no school, district, or state office reviews homeschool records. ISBE still urges good records, because when anyone asks for proof of your child's education, providing it is up to you. These are the situations that ask:

• Enrolling in a public school later
• A truancy inquiry
• Applying to college, which reads a high school transcript and diploma
• Signing up for driver education at the public high school, which asks for proof of passing grades
• Claiming the state Education Expense Credit

ISBE names report cards, course outlines, attendance logs, and standardized test results as the kind of documentation that answers these requests. From ninth grade on, the course list becomes the transcript described below.

Illinois requires no tests of homeschoolers. If you choose to test, you do not send the results to any school official or state agency. Homeschoolers also may not take the state accountability tests that public schools give, because those tests measure the public school learning standards.

PSAT, SAT, and AP exams

• The spring school-day PSAT 8/9, PSAT 10, and SAT that Illinois buys for public school students do not cover homeschoolers, unless the student takes the subject being tested at the public school.
• The fall school-day SAT, PSAT 8/9, and PSAT/NMSQT are outside the state contract, so a local public school willing to host a homeschooler can test them. Private and religious schools outside the state contract may let homeschoolers take the PSAT 8/9 and PSAT 10 they order, and any student can register for a national Saturday SAT.
• AP exams: public schools have no duty to order exams for homeschoolers, and parents cannot order them directly from the College Board. Ask AP coordinators at nearby public or private schools early in the school year, because a school must add a homeschooler to its exam order in the fall.

Every school district must find and evaluate children with disabilities, a duty called Child Find, and that includes homeschooled children. Ask the school district where you live, in writing, for an evaluation. Illinois rules give the district 60 school days after you sign consent to finish the evaluation and decide whether your child is eligible.

Two ways to receive services

Part-time enrollment: a child with a disability may attend the public schools in your district of residence part time and receive services through an Individualized Education Program (IEP). The child must attend for at least one instructional subject, and services cover only the time the child is actually at school. Services must begin within 10 school attendance days after the district gives you written notice of the IEP.

A services plan: without enrollment, Illinois treats a homeschooled child like a private school student. There is no right to an IEP; the district may write an Individual Services Plan (ISP) paid from its proportionate share, the part of its federal special education funds set aside for private school students. A district can end services for the rest of the year when that money runs out. The district holds a consultation meeting, usually once a year, with private school and homeschool representatives that sets out the money available and the services planned.

Classes at the public school

Any homeschooled student may attend the regular program part time if the school has space. Submit the request before May 1 for the next school year, and only to a school in the district where you live. A class with a required after-school part, such as band practice, brings that activity with it; otherwise schools have no duty to open extracurricular activities to homeschoolers.

Illinois graduation requirements apply to public schools, not to a homeschool. You set the graduation requirements and decide when your child graduates, and the state issues no diploma to homeschoolers. ISBE encourages parents of college-bound students to follow the public school graduation requirements, since colleges, employers, the military, and trade schools set their own course expectations.

A homeschool graduate's record is two documents: the diploma your homeschool issues and a transcript listing each course by year with its grade and credit.

Finishing at a public high school

A homeschooler can enroll for 12th grade and earn a public school diploma, but must then meet every state graduation requirement. ISBE says a high school may not grant credit for classes that did not come from an accredited program, and ISBE does not accredit homeschools. A homeschooled student has no right to a public school diploma or to walk in its graduation ceremony without full-time enrollment.

Driver education

Every district that runs grades 9 through 12 must open both its classroom course and its behind-the-wheel instruction to homeschooled students in the district. Notify the district by April 1 that your teen wants the course the following school year, and show a passing grade in at least eight courses during the previous two semesters. The course is at least 30 hours of classroom instruction and 6 hours of driving.

Illinois has no statewide admission rule for homeschool graduates. Each college, public or private, sets its own application requirements, so a homeschooler applies like any other student and supplies the transcript and other materials that college asks for.

For federal student aid, a student who completed high school in a homeschool that satisfies a state's compulsory attendance law meets the high school requirement without an equivalency certificate. In Illinois, that is a homeschool run as a private school under the attendance law.

High school students can also take community college courses for credit by enrolling directly at the college. No state program pays a homeschooler's tuition, so you pay the college's tuition and fees, and each college sets its own rules for admitting students under 18 and placing them into college-level courses.

Homeschool dual enrollment in Illinois

Illinois has no law giving homeschoolers a right to public school sports, and ISBE says the answer is no in most cases. The Illinois High School Association (IHSA) treats a homeschooled student as a private school student and lets one play only by enrolling at the member high school.

To be eligible, the student must take and pass at least one credit-bearing course at that school, and carry at least 25 credit hours of work in total, counting courses in a program the school approves, for which the school grants graduation credit. The student must meet this every semester, not just the season of the sport, and pay any applicable tuition and fees. Whether a school accepts homeschoolers on these terms is its own decision.

Homeschool sports eligibility in Illinois

Illinois has no education savings account or scholarship program for homeschoolers. Its Education Expense Credit covers homeschool costs: 25 percent of qualifying expenses above the first $250, up to $750 per family a year, however many children you teach. Both you and your child must be Illinois residents, the child must be under 21 and a full-time student, and the credit is not allowed when adjusted gross income exceeds $500,000 on a joint return or $250,000 on other returns.

For homeschools, qualifying expenses include tuition, workbooks and other materials that get used up, rented books or courses, and lab materials, plus shipping and sales tax on those items. Reusable textbooks, calculators, travel, and items your family keeps do not qualify. Claim the credit on Schedule ICR with your state return and attach the receipts; a canceled check does not count.

Homeschool tax breaks and funding in Illinois

When your child enrolls in a public school, the school decides grade placement and may test your child or ask for proof of the material covered at home. Its decision cannot be unreasonable or arbitrary. For example, a school cannot demand that your homeschool be registered or recognized by ISBE, because the School Code leaves homeschools out of that process.

ISBE describes a placement method that treats every student the same way, such as testing all students who arrive from Illinois private schools or from schools in other states, as a reasonable policy. For a high school student, ISBE calls proof of earned credits critical, so the transcript and course records matter most there. Talking with the district before enrolling lets your child prepare for whatever test it uses.

No office monitors homeschools. A truancy investigation starts only when someone reports a concern to the Regional Office of Education, and the regional superintendent for your county handles it first. A truancy officer may contact you for more information.

If the regional superintendent asks, you are expected to show that your instruction is at least equal to public school standards; a federal court held in 1974 that under Illinois law the burden of proof rests with the parents. With evidence that a homeschool falls short, the regional superintendent may send a truant officer, who can refer the case to court. A parent whose child attends a homeschool that does not meet the law can be found guilty of a Class C misdemeanor.