Thanks for the shout-out!
That's what I thought, too, LMom: that what's on the books and what happens in practice may be two different things. It's a lot of hassle for the schools to go HSer by Hser to check everyone more than once a year. I doubt they'd do it unless there was a real problem or a family they wanted to make an example of.
As for unschooling, I think the real unschoolers that I know--that is, those who take their duty to their kids seriously and really think about how to help their kids learn in their own ways--are FAR more organized and capable of enumerating the curriculum items they have available to the kids and the skills their kids are learning than I am, say. Doing unschooling effectively requires a LOT of work on the part of the parent(s). I'm just not that willing to drop everything at a moment's notice to follow my child's every whim. I'm too lazy!
Honestly, I suspect that the people who will have honest-to-goodness trouble with this review policy (vs. mere fear or inconvenience) are the people who probably should have some trouble IMHO: that small handful of people who really are neglecting their kids. For everyone else it will be a hassle, but nothing to really worry about. (Assuming, of course, that the curriculum stuff isn't too regulated. THAT could be a major problem for GT HSers!)
I know one unschooling family that worries me a bit about their approach, and I could see a law like the NJ one being a big deal for them. They have a really nice boy a couple or 3 years older than my DS7 who isn't reading yet. My son had to read some signs to him, and it was kind of troubling, both to DS and to me. I worry about the poor kid missing the "sweet spots" for learning certain skills. If he's not motivated to learn to read by 10, when exactly is he going to get motivated? Maybe it's time to consider the possibility that something isn't working there...
But I want to stress that this family is the exception, not the rule. Most unschoolers I know have kids ahead of the curve, not behind it. And they certainly work a lot harder to educate their kids than I ever do! It's a lot harder to have a variety of math options for a child to choose from whenever they feel like it than it is to say "Math time now!" and sit down with a curriculum!
