<p>We home school our kids. I really appreciate the level of discourse here on cc concerning this news in California. I read an online article about it yesterday which was followed by over 900 reader responses. I read some of them and had to stop because it was making my blood boil.</p>
<p>Everyone either knows a family who home schools and whose kids seem below average educationally, or they know someone who knows a family like that. But how many families do we know with kids like this who are in the public schools? Lots, I’m guessing.</p>
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<p>As you say, many of those are very young children. They are not school age yet. This has nothing to do with home schooling. This is a child abuse issue, not a home schooling issue. </p>
<p>In most cases, parents who are lazy and drug addled don’t want to have their kids around all day and aren’t going to put them in the care of relatives. Public school is free and they’ll even pick the kids up. Yes, there are exceptions. </p>
<p>Many public schooled children are also at risk from crazy relatives during the hours they are at home or in after-school care. Are we going to insist that kids stay at school 24/7 because some of them are at risk in their own homes? Of course not.</p>
<p>One study has shown that the socialization skills of home schooled children exceeds that of public schooled children. I can try to find the link if you’d like to see it. </p>
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<p>2nd trip through 8th grade? It sounds to me as if this boy was failing despite the efforts of the public school system. His mom shouldn’t have tackled the job if she wasn’t willing to do more than what the school had done to help this boy. I don’t mean this to sound like a recrimination against you at all, but that’s what families are for. We have to tell our crazy sisters to knock it off. 
The reason I say it is no recrimination is that my sister did some things with her kids that I probably should have spoken up about.</p>