Home Schooling

The Regional Office of Education must ascertain that all children in the Will County region have the opportunity to attend school.  If you choose to create a Home School education, Illinois courts have ruled that homeschooling must provide an education that is equivalent with the standards set for public schools. Those standards are:

1. Public Schools must have a calendar of 176 attendance days and a daily schedule of 5 hours or more. 
   "Illinois law does not set any minimum number of hours per day, or days of instruction per year, for students in private schools(which includes home schools)." This information is taken from the ISBE website.
2. Create and maintain an educational program that is comparable to that of the public schools.  Subjects which must be taught in an Illinois home school are language arts, mathematics, biological/physical sciences, social science, fine arts, physical development and health.

Registration of your home school with the school district, the Regional Superintendent, or the State of Illinois is voluntary.  However, you may wish to notify your local school district and your Regional Superintendent of your intention to home school by filling in this form and providing one copy to your Regional Office of Education. To register your child for homeschooling with the Illinois State Board of Education, complete the Notification of Intent to Homeschool. Otherwise, they may think that your child is truant. 

Please note:

1.  If your child returns to the public school, it is the responsibility of the Public School to place the child in the grade it designates (School Code 10-22.5).
2. It is the responsibility of the Will County Regional Office of Education to help maintain school attendance.  The compulsory attendance laws of the State of Illinois hold the parent/guardian responsible for their child’s attendance in school.  The law states:  “Whoever has custody or control of any child between the ages of 6 and 17 years shall cause such child to attend school the entire time it is in session.”  (122/26-2). 

More information from the Illinois State Board of Education

• Illinois Homeschooling Document
• Illinois Homeschooling Document (Spanish)

Please call the Will County Regional Office of Education if you require more information at 815-740-8360.

Resources

Due to the many requests for information about home education, the following list of resources has been compiled. This is not intended to be exhaustive, nor is this an endorsement of these organizations or publications. Home schooling parents are not required to use any of the services or organizations listed below.

Illinois Support Network
(For information about current laws affecting home schooling, contact either organization.)

Commonly Used Curricula

Journals

Gifted resources

Creative Home Schooling: A Resource Guide for Smart Families by Lisa Rivero
A to Z Home's Cool Homeschooling Web Site-Gifted pagehttp://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/weblinks/gifted.htm
Hoagie's Gifted Education: Homeschooling Gifted Children pagehttp://www.hoagiesgifted.org/homeschool.htm