I need point out that I have my teaching degree and two masters degrees in education and I have met some really awesome teachers in the homeschool network that have no degrees. I have met people who threaten the teachers with their jobs in order to get them not to recognize anything for IEP help they have to pay for.I believe that parents know their children better and love them and want them to succeed more than anyone else could on the planet and home school was & is the best option for my child because he was very abused by public school that refused to help him with autism and wrote behavior plans that punished him for his autism and they neglected to teach to him too and pretty much told me so, by putting him in the dunce seat in the early grades. I saw it happen many times and had the teachers tell me they had too many children and they would get no help from Special education and they did not want to deal with it so they put my child in time out all the time and sent him to the office all the time to sit there. I believe my child taught himself how to read! I know they didn't. I saw some pretty illegal crap they pulled on my 14 legitament federal complaints, I wrote when I pulled him out of school. My son and I found a whole lot more support and resources and options with homeschool and I think people like you need to re think what you are saying when you tell someone that they can't home school and should leave it in the hands of experts and imply that the experts are only in public schooling. I have sought Home school Legal Defense and other excellent resources and there are nationally accredited curiculum programs and many options for even so much as one class you don't feel comfortable teaching, that can be done and graded for you.My son is going to need an IEP until he is 21 but otherwise I could care less about the teaching in public school. I want a good product (IEP) for his future and the only way I can get it is through them. Otherwise I know I could write a better product myself...but it is a legal document to go anywhere! I know home school kids that graduate from High school and have a two year associates degree at the same time, by attending the community college. I raised 3 other very successful students who were in public school and I realize how much of our lives together the public school took away from us by long days and long nights of homework. Home school is a better option for many children including (especially) special needs because schools do neglect and dicriminate against children that are high need. I believe we have been able to teach our children and create more success for them to lead more productive lives. It is disheartening to find out the extent of our childs autism in 10th grade and I do believe I need to find someone to decipher the psych testing and teach us how to teach to him through the way he learns. That person(s) should be found working with an IEP process most likely and that is who we need.

I tell people all the time that ant testing the school systems ask for have done even if you know it is a stall tactic so they can put off paying for services as long as they can. In the end you will ultimately use this testing against them because more often then not they have no one more experienced then the specialists to contradict the findings.

I do understand the home schooling because you do not think the school system is doing the right thing and that you as a parent can do a better job, but when it comes to our children sometimes we get in over our heads because we just do not have the training to recognize things such as you are describing. Trust me I do not think the school teachers would have caught it either. This is why if you do not think your child is getting what they need from the public schools you have to push for specialized schooling, and this is where all of the testing by experts comes in. You use all of that information to force the district to put your child in a better school.

I ran out of space above and wanted to say that we need to relearn how to teach to our son ourselves and he has been coping with this and has other learned behavior responses because of this being disabling to him and he is really frustrated. It is anything but early intervention and needs to recognize all of this too.