Written by Diane O’Burns

Public school parents are terrified of entering back into horrible remote learning programs like the ones they encountered this past spring. They need information so they can make plans for their children’s education, and yet many schools still do not know what materials or e-learning system they will be using later this month. It sounds like the 2020-2021 school year will be one giant experiment using precious human beings.

Ryan Scott, principal of Main Street Elementary School in Shelbyville said this in an email to a parent who inquired about the upcoming school year:

We do not have a specific plan in place for remote learning until we can gather more information.

Mr. Scott then changed his tune in another email:

Each building level Principal works with the parents and student to find the best fit for a student that has been homeschooled and is either returning to the public school, or entering a public school for the first time. The main area of concern is if the student will struggle with the material at a given grade level when they either enter or return to in person learning in the school district. With that being said, the district has not had any discussions about holding students back if they are homeschooled for a semester or a year. It might come into play in extreme cases, but I do not believe it will be the norm.

The public schools are expecting homeschoolers to abide by an arbitrary set of standards that far too many of their own students are failing to meet.

In a separate email to the above parent, Shane Schuricht, superintendent of Shelbyville Unit School District #4, goes on to say this when asked about the remote learning choice:

At the elementary, we are exploring the possibility of an external platform such as “Edgenuity” or the possibility of dedicating a teacher per grade-level to plan, support, etc. … the remote learning families.

Mt. Olive School district provided this inaccurate information regarding homeschooling on their Facebook page as well as in a letter to parents:

All homeschoolers are required to register with the state of IL, they have to make an appointment to bring in their full curriculum for approval by the state, and then they have to also turn in records to the state each year.

Mt. Olive homeschoolers are not required to do any of the above.

Jenny Gregory Binney, a teacher from Mt. Olive School district, decided to post the following on Facebook when the false requirements came into question:

Why in the world would you not be required to register your homeschoolers as homeschoolers? That seems absurd. How in the world are homeschoolers in Illinois held accountable … if they don’t need to be registered or need a certain curriculum? Some parents may say they are “homeschooling” when they are not doing anything. Just seems like there isn’t a way to hold parents accountable.

She later deleted her comment after she was informed by many homeschoolers that the district information was incorrect.

Well, Ms. Binney, I would like to ask the same question of the public school: Who is holding them accountable for the poor student outcomes that are happening in the Illinois public school system. Let us look at the Mt. Olive District stats for the 2019 school year. The district has an 83 percent graduation rate, with 31 percent of students meeting state standards in ELA and 34 percent meeting state math standards.

Of the 11^th grade students taking the SAT college admissions exam, only 21 percent met the standards in ELA and 18 percent met the Math standard. The average score for the SAT in the Mt. Olive district was a 949. Out of the 37 high school graduates in Mt. Olive in 2017 (most recent year listed), 18.9 percent attended community college after graduation, and 14.3 percent of those graduates required remediation before being allowed to take college level courses. Is this acceptable after being educated for 12+ years?

I reached out to several principals and superintendents in other districts regarding what needed to be done to homeschool, but none returned my emails.

The most shocking and egregious statements from public schools have come from district employees stating that should students be homeschooled, they will not be able to return to the public school setting again–ever. This is completely untrue.

For years, many parents homeschooled until 8^th grade and sent their children to public school for high school. Some homeschooled students want to try a year of high school out, so they transfer in and most transfer back out to homeschool the next year.

Parents in the Shelbyville and Taylorville district report that they have been warned that should their child be high school age, they will automatically be placed at the freshmen level, no matter how many homeschool high school credits they have earned or what their age is upon seeking to enroll in the public school.

Parents have also been told that a high school diploma will not be achievable in homeschool and that a GED is necessary. They are also told that colleges will not accept homeschooled students. Again, these claims are false.

Many public schools in Illinois are already tainting the pathway for homeschoolers by providing false information and bullying parents so they are too afraid to leave the supposed safety and comfort of the public school system. What loving, caring parent would want to cause their child not to get a high school diploma or not to be able to get into college? All this false information keeps parents from choosing homeschooling.

These schools, along with countless others in Illinois and across the nation right now, are showing a blatant disregard for the homeschooling laws that we have fought so hard to keep in place. Government school educators are bullying and lying to parents who are seeking to educate their children via a viable and legal alternative: homeschooling.

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This is Part3 (of 3) of an extended article about parents seeking to homeschool their children during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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IFI recently held two important webinars to help better inform, equip, and encourage parents to make the move to home education. These webinars can be found on the IFI YouTube channel under the “Home Education” playlist tab. These videos are posted for anyone curious about homeschooling.

In our first webinar we featured three experienced homeschool mothers who address frequently asked questions about Illinois law and how to begin homeschooling.

The second video features Dr. Brian Ray, a leading researcher in the area of homeschool education. He is the president of the National Home Education Research Institute (nheri.org).

Written by Diane O’Burns

Lies to parents continue to spew forth across Illinois from the public schools as we get closer to the first day of school. In recent days, many school districts and schools across Illinois have informed parents via the school or district Facebook pages and in online school platforms for parents of the school or district rules for homeschooling. For example, Staunton School district released the following question (#29) and answer in a document:

If I should choose to not enroll my student and want to homeschool my child, what process must I follow?

The district responded,

“in the event that you choose to homeschool your student, you must contact the Regional Office of Education to register your student as homeschooled, provide a curriculum to be monitored, and approved for your child, and are subject to rules and regulations provided through the state of Illinois.

Nothing in the district’s statement is accurate information based on the Illinois Homeschool law.

The Elwood CCSD #203 listed in their Transition Plan Back to In-Person Instruction,

Those parents who wish to just keep their children at home, but have no medical reasoning for this, will need to register for homeschooling through the Regional Office of Education.

First, homeschoolers are not “just keeping” our “children at home”; we are educating them as required by the guidelines listed in the Illinois Homeschool law. Second, homeschoolers are not required to register their homeschool.

ROE #17 Bloomington sent this to parents:

Homeschool–if you choose not to enroll your child in Prairie Central Schools, or any other public or private school, you may choose to homeschool him or her. Please know that if you do not enroll your child, you will not be entitled to receive resources from the Prairie Central school district. A copy of the homeschool registration form is available at ROE #17 in Bloomington, IL, where you will submit copies of your planned curriculum for approval.”

Again, we are not required to register, and we are not required to have our curriculum approved.

The Vandalia Elementary School Facebook page recently posted this warning:

if a parent chooses to homeschool that is of course their decision (as it has always been) but it will have to be done by registering as a homeschooler through the local Regional Office of Education in the former Jefferson School building.

Again, homeschoolers are not required to register their homeschool with anyone.

Also, numerous parents who are choosing to homeschool have discovered that their child has been automatically registered by the school for the 2020-2021 school year. Upon contacting the school regarding this automatic registration, parents have been told that sometimes the system just does that. So, will these homeschooling parents who were automatically registered as public school students now have truant officers show up at their door in the fall? How does automatic registration occur? No one in the schools seems to be able to give an answer.

Ryan Scott, principal of Main Street Elementary School in Shelbyville said this in an email to a parent who inquired about whether or not a child could return to the public school after being homeschooled:

As far as re-entry into Shelbyville schools from a home-school program, it is more case by case with the different programs. … I have had some students enroll from home-school with zero evidence of standards mastered. … or proof of even attendance. In cases where we have data from a home-school program such as accredited organization, it is easier to assess & enroll in the appropriate grade-level. In cases where I have nothing more than parent anecdotes on student mastery/progress. … we assess the student w/multiple data sources such as our nationally “normed” standardized assessments for ELA & Math & make decisions regarding the most appropriate placement.

Homeschools are not required to submit attendance records to public schools. As far as evidence of standards mastered, let’s take a look at Main Street Elementary School’s test scores from 2019. Forty percent of its students did not meet standards in ELA. Fifty-three percent of its student body did not meet state standards in Math in 2019. This is a school district with a 15:1 student-teacher ratio too. Mr. Scott should concern himself with the failing student body, rather than a few select homeschool parents that he claims to have come in contact with in his district.

This parent also asked about the upcoming school year and what they had planned for (this was in late July). Mr. Scott continues by saying,

Obviously, the most “stream-lined” system for families choosing to not send their child to in-person learning @ school, is the district “remote learning” program. I can’t tell you exactly what this will look like yet but we are definitely working hard on it & plan to communicate with our families ASAP.

This parent believes they cannot in good faith send their children into this giant unknown educational black hole, which in the spring was a total disaster.

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This is Part 2 of an extended article about parents seeking to homeschool their children during the COVID-19 pandemic.