Homeschooling high school - Illinois State Requirements

Disclaimer: I am not a professional. I'm just a homeschool mom sharing what I have discovered over the years and pointing the way for others to find the right path for their child in the teen years. Be sure to read carefully, research, document, pray, and as a family find the best course for your child, including following state guidelines.

A couple links before we begin. An article here gives a clear overview of Illinois laws that relate to homeschooling.  HSLDA has even more details (that link might not work as you might need to share your name and email in order to view).

On to high school specifically . . .


First, the document. Here is the Illinois State Board of Education Graduation Requirements. It is 18 pages, and while I would encourage you to read through the paper in its entirety, what you are really looking for is on page 2 and further laid out in a chart in Appendix A:

Any student entering high school as a ninth-grader starting in the 2008-09 school year and beyond will have taken the following minimum number of courses during high school: 
 •4 years of language arts;  
•2 years of writing-intensive courses, one year of which must be offered as an English language arts course and may be counted toward meeting one year of the four-year English language arts requirement. The writing courses may be counted toward the fulfillment of other state graduation requirements, when applicable, if writing-intensive content is provided in a subject area other than English language arts; 
 •3 years of mathematics, one of which must be Algebra 1 and one of which must include geometry content; 
 •2 years of science;
 •2 years of social studies, of which at least one year must be the history of the United States or a combination of the history of the United States and American government; and 
 •1 year chosen from any of the following:

•  art;  
• music; 
• foreign language, which shall include American Sign Language; and 
• vocational education.  

Additionally, starting with students entering grade 9 in the 2016-17 school year and thereafter, at least one semester of civics coursework will be required 

Let's break these down a bit.

4 years of language arts. This includes any course on literature, grammar, writing, and/or speech. We have usually shot for more like 5-7 years/credits of LA in high school. Which might look something like this (with grades following in parentheses):

• Institute for Excellence in Writing level C (9) - some of my kids started this in 8th grade to get it out of the way and free of room in their high school schedule.
• American literature (9)
• British lit (10) - or world, ancient, more American, modern, etc.
• Essay and Research writing (10)
• English 101 (11) - college level course taken online (more on these later)
• Speech (12) - college level course taken online
• possibly a grammar course if I feel they need it, otherwise we'll use Easy Grammar workbook or an ACT/SAT prep book as a refresher. 

2 years of writing intensive courses. These can be included in the LA credits. We have always done 2 years of a course that is exclusively writing. However, you can use another course for that second credit if it involves a lot of writing. For example, when I was in high school we had to write a 10 page research paper for our history class in addition to other various writing assignments and essays throughout the year. That would have qualified for this second writing credit.

3 years of math. Pretty straight forward. Algebra 1, something that covers geometry, and one other course. I am thankful that it does not require a separate geometry course although at this time I have had all of our kids take a year of geometry. However, if you use certain curriculums (like the earlier Saxon math books) geometry is integrated into Algebra 1 and 2, so a separate course is somewhat redundant. For that third credit you will usually do Algebra 2, but might also consider consumer ed, Pre-algebra (if your student isn't ready for algebra freshman year), or college math credits (Advanced math, trig, calc, college algebra, etc.)

2 years of science. As much as my kids cheer when they hear there are only 2 years of science required in high school, I never let them off with just that. Also, you will probably want to make sure that one of those years is biology as many colleges require high school level biology on incoming transcripts. Typical high school science would be biology, chemistry, and physics, with the math requirements getting progressively harder when taken in that order.

2 years of Social Studies. Again, we go for all four years here. We do this subject with all the kids together and have increasing expectations as they grow. One year has to be American history and include a semester on civics. This is a great opportunity for real life learning - help with an election, assist in a candidate's campaign, or just study and learn about a current election. I might recommend a field trip to Springfield as well. So much history packed into that city!

1 year of art, foreign language, music, vocational ed. We require two years of foreign language and 4-8 years of art, music, etc. This is when your child's individual interests will get recognition on their transcript. Give them credit for theater involvement, that black belt they earned, the team sport they enjoy, or the hours spent developing their drawing skills.

Also, not mentioned here is the health requirement (1 semester), and it also says every student should have 9 weeks of consumer ed. These are mentioned in a footnote in the appendix . . . 

That's a lot of information and detail, but that's the basis for everything else. Always make sure you are meeting the legal requirement for homeschooling your high schooler.

From here we get to the fun part - tailoring the plan for your high school student.