State Senator Ed Maloney of Chicago told Illinois Review this morning that homeschoolers in Illinois should be registered with their local school districts and admitted that he doesn't understand why they are so opposed to his newly-introduced SB 136.
"We're not going for the private school students, we're going to change that [in the proposal]. What we want to know is where the homeschoolers are. It's as simple as that," Maloney said from his Springfield office.
Maloney said the lack of accountability of homeschoolers came to his attention when a family member mentioned another was homeschooling. He asked about the procedure of homeschooling and was surprised to find out homeschoolers in Illinois had no accountability to local authorities for the students in their home schools.
"There is virtually no regulation, no curriculum requirements, no periodic checking on their progress," he said. "Regional superintendents are telling me that they have no way of determining whether the homeschooled students are truant."
Maloney says he plans to hold a subject matter hearing on the issue in the near future to determine how best to handle the situation and amend his proposal.
More to come ...
