Although your son is a lot older than mine was, I have to echo what HK said - we never saw a single behavioural issue at school, they were ALL at home. bad sleeping, bedwetting, anxiety, "I'm tired" all the time, apathy, not wanting to do anything except watch tv, degenerative in speech, physical development, emotional development etc. Bad eating too and then aggression, anger, lashing out etc. Also, within 3 days of school ending it all would fade away, until we would remind him of school starting in 2 days time (or whatever). Then it would start again.
He also told us he liked school - when I went to fetch him he would hide away and beg for 10 more minutes. The school saw no problems except the ones "in your (my) head".
We pulled him and it took 9 months of weekly play therapy and almost as long of doing absolutely nothing to help him be self-motivated again. This is called deschooling. Where he was allowed to ride his bicycle, swim, daydream, play lego, go for walks, watch tv, choose games to play, outings to go on, playdates with friends, sleepovers at grandparents etc.
Initially he would ask for work, but I could see that his heart was not in it - he would dawdle, redirect and put it off over and over. So I would say lets rather go on a picnic etc.
Eventually he started seeking out activities of learning on his own.
So let me ask: is it such a big deal if he doesn't go into 8th grade in the fall? Would it be the end of the world if you kept him home now, let him have serious downtime and then decided together just before school starts back what you will do then? (whether test for 8th grade or homeschool or unschool?)
If your instincts are telling you this is what he needs, then don't toss those away; trust your instincts and allow him the freedom to do absolutely nothing for a while and then see what happens. The joy of switched on kids, is that they don't fall behind; they learn without trying and so you will know by then if he is ready and wants to do 8th grade or not. Time is one thing all our kids have - they can do more in less time and it can often be a blessing if we allow it to lead to more time to just be a kid.
