It probably won't materialize, but from time to time, I play around with the idea of finding the best state to homeschool my son.  Our Southern state is neither the best nor the worst, regulation is fairly minimal, but they do force you to teach basic subject areas each and every year, even if it is, beyond a certain point, re-hashing the same topics over and over.  Ideally, I'd like to find a state where no notification to the public school district is required (in that my son has never been in public school, that's not an issue here either), and where you are only required to keep records of what has been taught, and how the student performed, otherwise, how you teach, and what you teach, is up to you.  I do have to wonder whether our traditionally somewhat educationally-challenged state tries to over-compensate for past deficiencies --- the concept of STEM and "ensuring success" is huge here.  I also suspect that there is a politically correct agenda, not to put it too crudely, to ensure that each and every minority student has received the maximum help to get as much education as they can.  I am not suggesting that there is anything bad or wrong about this, but it does translate into forcing students to do work which often does not match their aptitudes, not to mention pulling them away from more practical things they could be studying, that would better prepare them for the adult working world.  In other words, why be a plumber or electrician, when you can be a nuclear physicist or a brain surgeon, never mind that plumbers and electricians can make huge bank, and not everyone is cut out to be a nuclear physicist or a brain surgeon?  (Please let me be abundantly clear that I am not advocating the idea that "school should just be job training and nothing else".  Even the Marxist-Leninists, bad as they were, did make great allowance for culture and fine arts, as long as it was no threat to their ideology.  My wife studied a year or two of Latin under the communist regime in Poland.)

I have heard good things about Oklahoma and, mirabile dictu, New Jersey (which I would otherwise assume to be a liberal, high-tax, anti-2A Eastern Seaboard nanny state), as far as the states where homeschooling is easiest.  If it would help my son to get an education better suited to his aptitudes and talents --- which are not inconsiderable, his abilities for rhetoric, argumentation, and debate never cease to amaze me, and he can set up computer, entertainment, and gaming systems like nobody's business, though there have been better math students in the world --- and if I could work out something regarding his custody (his mother has chosen not to see him in over a year, even though she lives 15 minutes away with her mortally sinful invalidly "remarried" consort), it's an idea that I'd at least be willing to entertain.  We could always just lock up our houses here, set up online security and video surveillance --- my neighbors are golden and we've got each other back, I even assured one neighbor lady, when she told me she got scared sometimes by herself and didn't own a gun for home defense, that I pack heat and can respond to a situation if needed --- keep minimal utilities connected, keep the taxes and insurance paid (our HOA doesn't allow rentals, feh!) and get a small apartment or house, to fulfill the residency requirements in our temporary home state.  I don't relish the idea of leaving the nice homes to which we've grown accustomed, but my son's education is more important than our living circuмstances.

Any thoughts or ideas?

(PS --- I know that "packing heat" in Ted McCarrick's Garden State would be a non-starter.  That would be one of many things to consider.)

I don't know if this is still true today, 2021, however, for at least the first 10 years of the 21st century, California has been a cake-walk.  The reason is the sheer deluge of applications for home-schools -- both family addresses and institutional versions, such as parent-driven charter schools, many of which were actually home-schools. (I know, because I was hired to teach in them.) And the reason for the deluge was and is obvious:  the utter incompetence of the state public school system -- its political/social agendas, its failures in literacy, its numerical dominance by millions of illiterate illegal immigrants -- the latter being the segment that has most destroyed public education in the state.

Given "le deluge," the State department of education simply could not manage or even sort the incoming new requests for home-school sites, and so they would literally rubber-stamp everything coming through.  

I left the public system shortly after the mandatory Lesbian Wedding Field Trip for 3rd graders in one school where I was teaching, so I cannot verify the rate of requests today, but it wouldn't surprise me if they have actually accelerated since then.

In response to MMagdala, though, there's not enough money in Mr Mellon's bank to induce me to move to the People's Republic of Kalifornia.

I understand and don't blame you.

I'd rate IN an A+, too.  Only thing you have to prove is--if asked--to show that you've done some sort of school for 180 days.  Not a big deal if you have a lesson plan written out.  

Arizona.  As far as I know they don't look at curriculum or who teaches. We have had a family from Germany come in the early 2000.  

I'd rate IN an A+, too.  Only thing you have to prove is--if asked--to show that you've done some sort of school for 180 days.  Not a big deal if you have a lesson plan written out.  

In fact, you don't even need this much docuмentation for the State.  If, and only if, you are asked for docuмentation by the State Superintendent of Public Instruction and no one else, do you have to provide such evidence.  Just keeping a calendar and marking off the days you engage in instruction would be sufficient to comply with the laws.  

Except in the larger cities (and then, only in the very urban areas) homeschooling is actually quite accepted by most people.  On many occasions during the 20 years of homeschooling all of my children over the years, when I had workmen at the house (e.g., plumbers, appliance delivery men, etc.) they would come in, see the kids working at the kitchen table or elsewhere, and comment about family members who homeschool their kids too.  None ever said anything critical, and I don't think they were just being polite.

Suggest you check the legal page at the Homeschool Legal Defense Association:  https://hslda.org/legal

In fact, you don't even need this much docuмentation for the State.  If, and only if, you are asked for docuмentation by the State Superintendent of Public Instruction and no one else, do you have to provide such evidence.  Just keeping a calendar and marking off the days you engage in instruction would be sufficient to comply with the laws.  

Except in the larger cities (and then, only in the very urban areas) homeschooling is actually quite accepted by most people.  On many occasions during the 20 years of homeschooling all of my children over the years, when I had workmen at the house (e.g., plumbers, appliance delivery men, etc.) they would come in, see the kids working at the kitchen table or elsewhere, and comment about family members who homeschool their kids too.  None ever said anything critical, and I don't think they were just being polite.

Suggest you check the legal page at the Homeschool Legal Defense Association:  https://hslda.org/legal

Same here.  In three years of homeschooling, we have gotten absolutely zero pushback from anyone.  I have even designed a homemade bumper sticker (had Build-A-Sign to print them for me, they create incredibly professional-looking product for minimal cost).  Feel free to download this and have them to make some for you too, if you like (www.buildasign.com).