The rules form state to state are VASTLY different, as was already mentioned. So it is vital for you to be very sure what your rules and laws are before you take this option. I encourage you to also talk to other homeschooling parents in your area, to see how it is working out for them.
I had homebound for 2 of my children, one for mental illness problems and one for surgical issues....and I am sad to say it was a flop/disaster both times, not becuz of my children, but becuz the homebound program just was not um.handled well. For my oldest child, she was put on homebound due to school induced PTSD while we were awaiting due process, anddureing due process. School had already excluded her from much of her classorom for several semesters. Her homebound instructor was quite infelxible in scheduling, wanted only to meet before 7 am, on Saturdays....her homebound instructor had NO idea how to work with a mentally ill child, and was entirely unprepared to do homebound for a child that had not had much academic instruction recently. The instructors idea of her role was to transport the current class assignments from school to my daughter, drop them off and leave. Worse, at end of semester first semester we had homebound? The instructor said school gave her work my daughter had already done the year before, so no credit was given my daughter for that semester. The next semester, the instructor said she turned work in to the school, school said instructor did not, again no credit given to my daughter.
For my son, school ordered homebound becuz my son had 2 surgeries on his eye, at a hospital far from home, and recovery required him to stay face down for a month after surgery, and not use his eyes. His homebound instructor had difficulty understanding our need to go frequently back to the far away doctor.and had NO idea how to work with a child with no vision. The instructor also had no idea what to do, how to work with a child who had missed more than a couple days of class, and wanted only to bring the current class assignments, drop them off and pick up completed work at end of week.
I now homeschool both those children of mine. I am grateful IL has "easy" rules to do so, tho. The scariest part for me was NOT the time involved to do so, becuz I was already spending at LEAST 5 hours a week at daughters school in meetings, and haveing to be at her school per school request at least 5 other times per week at drop of a hat for "crisis". I was also working side by side with my son, who could not yet read AT ALL, nor write AT ALL at LEAST 4 hours every nite, holidays and weekends- helping him work on his school assignments. (his school continued to steadfastly refuse a word processor for him in spite of his vision difficulties and his cerebal palsy issues etc) Ironically, when my son DID use "books on tape" he mastered his work quite well. And when allowed to use a word processor, the quality of his work far exceeded what anyone thought he could do. And he could give an ORAL presentation to knock your sox off, complete with all his sources cited.
I have found that me and the kids spend FAR LESS time "working" at academics in the "traditional" manner by homeschooling. There turns out to be far less stress, far less negativity, we have been able to STOP medications for anxiety etc. We have a LOT more "field" experience going on, we take mini field trips, we do a lot more "hands on" and more "practical application" No longer being bound by a school schedule, we have more freedom to do more exploration to all kinds of fascinating places, and we actually get to meet with far more people, and we get a lot of learning thru meeting more people, too.
I was seriously afraid homeschooling my kids would "take them out of the world" and "isolate" them. I have to say, tho, that I do not now think that is the case. Altho I do now have more control over WHO they are around, and what they are exposed to.
My daughter was in an ED BD class of all difficult children......actually it was all boys except for her. It was really little more than a warehouse for kids the school just had basically given up on. We had serious problems ariseing from her peers from her ed bd class......she was stalked by a classmate, we suffered tens of thousands of dollars of vandalism at hands of a classmate.....so the reality was for her- what kind of influences was she getting in school? NOT "good" ones, to be sure! And her stress level while in that classroom kept her symptomatic so much that she did not manage going to extra curricular functions..(and in her school Special Education kids were excluded from school based extra curriculars) NOW she goes to church again, and park district functions, and clubs and groups not school based.
My son was teased due to leg braces, clumsiness, etc. THat is not exactly my dream of what I wanted for my child to experience. Doing homeschool has opened up our schedule more and permitted us to do charity work at Ronald McDonald House and we go occasionally to give cookouts there for the patients staying there (we know first hand how it is to be a patient there) and noone there ever teases him...and he has more time and energy to focus on church etc and clubs and groups---places where WE CHOOSE who he will be around, places where we have more control over the inds of people he will be spending time with. SO I now have more control in my childrens peers and the people who are influenceing my children. I am HOPING that me haveing this control will give me time to help shape my children to retain the morals and values that "I" value.
We spend a lot of time in libraries and bookstores, but we also spend a lot of time in creeks and ponds, and a lot of time in the kitchen working with food, both as "health class" and as "science"- LOL- doing all kinds of expeiments for science, LOL. We rent videos and get the corresponding books, and read along and then watch the video------and find ways to incorporate various "school subjects" into everything.
Really, I myself have been learning a lot, too....and I have found it fascinating to be more right there while my children learn. It is showing ME the world in a new and exciting way. It has also had a side effect I dearly treasure. (I had been so afraid I would become "The Bad Guy" by being "Teacher") - my kids and I now enjoy each others company so much much more! I have NOT become "the bad guy" at all, after all. Maybe my kids now view me as a peer or something, sort of? We work together on so many many exciting learning experiences. Side by side. And I am getting to know my kids in a way I never could have by sending them off to school every day. And I so much more like the people they are now than when they were still in traditional school.