Illinois schools
Illinois schools are divided into roughly 50 Regional Offices of Education (ROE) and Intermediate Service Centers. Each county or multiple rural counties are associated with a particular ROE, as in "ROE 1."
Low Quality
"Between 70-75 percent of students in our public schools are not at grade level in reading and math, yet 87 percent of the students graduate! This reality of poor performance is not new in Illinois."[1] Yet, perhaps because performance at public schools are atrocious nationwide, Illinois public schools are ranked #8 among public schools U.S.[2] Most of the Illinois top-50 ranking schools have large percentages of students who do not even test at grade level.[1]
Homeschooling
As explained by ROE 41:
Illinois law mandates that students between the ages of 6 and 17 attend either a public or private school. A homeschool is considered a private school. There is no separate category for homeschools apart from other private schools under the Illinois School Code (105 ILCS 5/26-1).
In 1950, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that homeschools are to be considered private schools. In 1974, the U.S. District Court stated in the case "Scoma v. Chicago Board of Education" that the "Levisen" decision quoted above was "reasonable and constitutional.” Thus ... the legal requirements for a homeschool are the same as any other private school in Illinois. Furthermore, there is no law requiring private schools to register with any public school official, nor are they required to seek state recognition, approval, or accreditation.[3]