Getting started homeschooling in Illinois

CurriculumQuiz checked the linked government or statute page on 2026-10-17. The six notes are notice, subjects, days or hours, assessment, teacher qualifications, and records. A curriculum website can help you choose books. It is not the statute. When this page and a blog disagree, the linked official page wins. If that page is silent, the answer here stays unknown.

Rules change. A summary can be wrong, incomplete, or out of date. Confirm the linked page, and contact that agency or a qualified attorney about your own facts. Save a copy of the page or the form it names, with the date you read it.

1. Open the official source

The recorded source for Illinois is Illinois State Board of Education. Illinois State Board of Education. Read it yourself before you buy a curriculum or file a form.

2. Notice or registration

The page says the state does not require parents to register before they begin, though a voluntary registration exists. It also says there is no formal procedure mandated by state law, and it recommends notifying the public school, preferably with a dated letter, so the student is not marked absent.

If that note does not name a form, a deadline, or an office, the source we read did not give us one. Check official source before you mail or upload anything.

3. Subjects

The page says you must provide instruction in language arts, mathematics, biological and physical science, social science, fine arts, and physical development and health, and that the education must be at least equivalent to public schools.

A curriculum that lists those words is not, by itself, proof that a legal duty is met. Match your plan to the sentence above. Ask the agency when the sentence says the list was not stated.

4. Days and hours

The page says parents who meet the Levisen standard are free to decide the manner, time, and materials. A minimum number of days or hours was not stated.

Do not borrow a day count from another state. If this note does not state a number, we do not invent one.

5. Assessment

The page answers “No” to whether the child has to take standardized tests that are submitted to a school official or state agency. If the student returns to public school, the district may test for placement.

A test that comes with a curriculum is not the same thing as a test an agency requires. Use the sentence above.

6. Teacher qualifications

The page describes the Illinois Supreme Court decision in People v. Levisen as holding that home schooling could be private schooling if the teacher were competent, the required subjects were taught, and the education was at least equivalent to public schooling. A state certificate was not stated as a requirement on this page.

A college degree, a teaching certificate, and a high-school diploma are different things. Record only what this sentence names. If it names nothing, check official source.

7. Records

The page recommends a dated withdrawal letter and copies for the family's records. A specific portfolio statute was not stated on this page.

Online schools in this directory often keep a grade file. Print curricula usually leave the file with the parent. That describes the product. It is not a ruling that either one satisfies Illinois. Keep what the sentence names.

Withdrawing from public school

The text recorded from the official source mentions withdrawing. Use the wording in the rows on this page, not a summary from another site.

If you are leaving a public school, ask that school what it needs in order to drop the student from its roll. A district can have a local form that the state page does not quote. This page will not supply one.

After the official page, then a curriculum

The quiz ranks programs from grade, style, time, budget, faith, accreditation, and pace. It does not read the Illinois statute, and the state does not change the match percentage. It adds a link back to the state page. The quiz runs in the browser. Quiz answers are never stored or sent. The site uses Google Analytics, which sets cookies, for anonymous usage stats. It does not ask for a child's name.

Style guides on this site list programs by tags and grade spans that are already in the directory. They are not legal checklists: Charlotte Mason, classical, secular, free, and kindergarten.

Come back to the official URL when the school year turns over. If the agency page changed, write to hello-curriculumquiz@agentmail.to and we will re-check the source before we change this summary. You can also embed the short fact box from the state page.