For my family, I prefer the independent route. When you come under the leadership of these programs you are not legally a homeschooler anymore, legally you are a public school student enrolled in an Alt Ed. program. This means you can’t completely choose your own curriculum, but must use something that the State or districts approves of. It also means that you must take the States test, when as an independent homeschooler you can choose from a variety of Standardized Tests or Assessments.

A few districts have programs where you can just use resources and maintain your independence, but they are few and far between.

We do have the right under Washington State law to get ancillary services such as speech therapy, sports participation, etc. So the schools can’t deny us this even they want to. We often do have to remind them of this law though, they won’t bring it up.

Oh, and I don’t know if some of the answers you saw were mine or not, but I have said “many” states offer these programs, I wouldn’t say “most” because I don’t know that for sure. What I do know is that it is a growing trend. Public Schools are losing students, and therefore funding, these programs enroll some students who would otherwise homeschool on their own, and the school gets as much money for these students as they get for the students in the classroom.

Our local school district has dedicated several pages on the county school board site that gives info about the legalities of homeschooling and offers links to curriculum (even a link to Christian curriculum sites!) and offers tips and guidance.

They buy my books, provide an advisor, and regular standardized testing. If my kids are not learning anything, they can make me send them to school, or subscribe to a correspondence school that does regular testing (like weekly, or monthly)

The second link below has the homeschool support organizations in every state, and what that state will do for homeschoolers.

If you are looking for high school, there are MANY online high school sites, like Keystone and Penn Foster. I also found this online:http://www.free-ed.net/free-ed/.

Good luck!!