The answer to your question would depend on your age, your participation in jobs and schooling and the type of school that you go to.
In Illinois you must be over the age of 16 to begin to claim unemployment benefits, if you are under this age then this is not a benefit option that will be available to you yet. Secondly, Illinois will only pay unemployment benefit for a certain amount of time, usually a minimum of 13 weeks, and only in specific circumstances. By this I mean that you should have been made redundant from your last job, or your employment ended following the expiry of your contract. If you quit your job or were fired then you will not be entitled to unemployment benefit.
If you are still in full time education at school then it is expected that any job you take on is part time as you will still be studying towards your exams and qualifications. Due to this, you will not be able to claim unemployment benefits if you are still at school as it is expected that you should be there studying and not taking on, or actively looking for, full time work whilst you are still studying. However, if you are above the age of 16 and are attending some evening or night school to further your qualifications then it may be perfectly possible to attend these classes and still be paid unemployment benefits.
The Illinois state government unemployment office is called the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) and has a website that can be found here
http://www.ides.illinois.gov/default.aspx. The website has frequently asked questions, an eligibility page and contact information for you to be able to get in touch with the office to find out properly about your unemployment and benefit options.
