Homeschooling seems to be quite a hot topic here right now so it got me thinking little more about how we will approach it if we decide to go that route. DS4.9 will be starting public K in the fall but we need to have a backup option for him due to health issues and potential behavior / boredom related problems. But DS3.2 is the one whom I really have in mind when I think homeschooling as he's the one more advanced.
So, my question is state law related (Illinois in our case). While the rules here are fairly relaxed as far as I can tell, I am not sure how to approach the topic of acceleration and what we would cover each year? This is what the law says:
"Home-schooling in Illinois is considered to be a form of private education. Parents who choose to educate their children at home are under a legal obligation to meet the minimum requirements stated in Illinois’ Compulsory Attendance Law (Section 26-1 of the Illinois School Code). Parents who choose to educate their children at home are obligated to teach their children “…the branches of education taught to children of corresponding age and grade in the public schools” and they are further obligated to offer instruction in these core courses in the English language. The “branches of education” include language arts; mathematics; biological and physical sciences; social sciences; fine arts; and physical development and health." And then:
"The regional superintendent of schools for the student’s county of residence has first-line responsibility for investigating reports of noncompliance with the compulsory attendance laws found in Article 26 of the Illinois School Code. In fulfilling this legal responsibility, regional superintendents may expect the parents who seek to educate their children at home to establish, when necessary, that they are providing instruction that is at least commensurate with the standards established for public schools. With evidence that home instruction in a specific instance does not satisfy the requirements of state law, the regional superintendent may request the regional or school district truant officer to investigate to see that the child is in compliance with the compulsory attendance law. Truant officers are peace officers empowered to conduct investigations, enforce the compulsory attendance law and to refer matters of noncompliance to the courts. A parent who allows a child to attend a home school that does not comply with the standard of Section 26-1, as interpreted by Levisen, allows the child to be truant and can be found to have committed a Class C misdemeanor."... all came from this source
http://www.isbe.state.il.us/homeschool/Reading all that, it seems simple, yet I'm lost and scared in a way. Does this mean I can teach "anything" as long as it fits within the "branches" that are studied in the public schools? Or Would the safer option be taking the standards for each grade from the school district website and covering those first and then working on anything we want to? But that wouldn't make any sense since we will need to heavily accelerate in some areas for DS3.2 who at this point is reading on about 1st grade level and his math skills are close to K/1st and his world and US geography and biology knowledge is getting quite "out there" as well.
Should I get someone from the school department come investigate if we're doing what we're supposed to, would I simply show them that instead of say 1st grade Language Arts we are working on 3rd grade, etc.?
Same with the whole "compulsory attendance" requirement. There is no set number of hours that homeschooled kids need to have every day. Yet there is compulsory attendance. If DS can cover in 1 or 2 hours what otherwise would take all day in a B&M school, would that count for full attendance? It seems to be such a gray area and there isn't really any information out there that would make this any clearer for me.
Plus, DS3.2 is clearly a 2E child and while some areas he'll breeze right through, there may be some areas that I may have problems convincing him to work on (he's the child that the school district wants to put in an Autism classroom).
So, I guess my question is, those of you who homeschool, how do you go about these laws and regulations and requirements?
