离 (lí) means "from" when you talk about distance: how far one place is from another. It is the word behind everyday sentences like "my home is close to school" and "is the station far from here?"
A + 离 + B + 远 / 近.
Put the two places on either side of 离, and finish the sentence with 远 (far) or 近 (close). As with other adjectives, 远 and 近 normally take 很 in front of them, and you don't need 是. For the negative, put 不 before the adjective: 不远, 不近, or 不太远 (not very far).
To ask if a place is far, add 吗 at the end, or use 远不远 (the 不 is said lightly, with a neutral tone). To ask how far, use 多远. In everyday speech people usually answer with the time it takes, such as 走路五分钟 (five minutes on foot), rather than with a distance.
English uses "from" for both, but Chinese does not. 离 is for the gap between two places, with nothing moving. 从 is the starting point of a trip, and usually goes with 到: 从 A 到 B (from A to B). So 我家从学校很远 is wrong; say 我家离学校很远.
The other common mistake is English word order. In English "far" comes before "from school", but in Chinese 离 and the place come first and 远 or 近 goes at the end: 我家离学校很远, not 我家很远离学校.
离 can also measure time: how long it is until something happens. The pattern is 离 + event + 还有 + amount of time. Here too, use 离, not 从.
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