No notice required
Homeschooling in Illinois
Your home is a private school. No registration, no approval, no testing.
Getting started (notice)
none. Illinois does not require you to register before you begin, and there is no need to register your home based private school with the State Board of Education or seek recognition. A 2025 bill to require annual registration, HB 2827, did not pass.
Required subjects
the branches of education taught to children of the same age and grade in the public schools, taught in English. The standard comes from People v. Levisen (1950), which recognised home education as private schooling.
Records you must keep
none required.
Testing / evaluation
none. There is no requirement that a homeschooled student be tested.
Parent qualifications
none beyond being a competent instructor, the phrase Levisen uses.
Where Letters & Devotion fits in Illinois
Whatever Illinois asks you to keep, keeping it should not be a job. Letters & Devotion logs instructional hours automatically while your child works, tracks mastery per skill as a ready-made portfolio record, and prints a transcript in one click, so notices, portfolios and evaluations start from records that already exist. The curriculum itself covers every core subject, K through 12.
Read all 84 courses in full before you pay anythingEvery unit, every skill, every objective. No account, no card.$29 a month after the first month. Cancel anytime, in one click.
This is a plain-language summary, not legal advice, and laws change. Last verified 2026-08. Always confirm current requirements with your state before relying on them. Sources:
HSLDA also publishes a plain-language summary of Illinois's law, at hslda.org/legal/illinois, and sells a paid legal-defense membership built on top of it. It is an advocacy organization, not a legal authority: its leadership is explicitly Christian, and it lobbies on homeschool legislation, positions a family may or may not share. Read what membership actually costs and covers before joining anything.