We aren't in the USA, so this is not directly relevant to us. We are homeschooling one of our children, and we are in an country where we must register to homeschool and be approved. In order to register and get approved we are required to provide plans for how we will meet our national curriculum, and then agree to annual reviews documenting our process/outcomes. Some states are more rigorous than others, where we lived when we started homeschool required all families to have a home visit first, our current state I think they choose people at random. The first state had more detailed questions about home environment etc.
I have found that both states have provided a fairly "friendly" interface to dealing with them, and guidance about meeting the legal requirements for homeschooling. Overall they have been easy to deal with.
I have to say that I think there are significant risks to unregulated homeschooling and I am very glad that we do have some checks and measures in place. I would hate to see it banned, but I do have concerns that there are homeschool children considerably at risk and am quite comfortable with the level of regulation we had in the more rigorous state.
