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But, it does make sense when you consider I teach special education and I'm where they end up when the regular classroom is not appropriate.

My older daughter's best friend was previously home schooled and you could not ask for a nicer kid. Wonderful student, athlete, and citizen. She ended up in public schools due to a downturn in family finances. A girl on my younger daughter's softball team has never stepped foot in a public school and is starting at community college this fall. Again...just an all-around great kid.

That being said, I can also give examples of wonderful public school kids and examples of horrible public school kids. In each case there is a parenting issue for good or bad. I believe it comes down to the parents every single time.

As one of our fellow FReepers mentioned, "ISP" stands for Independent Study Program. And by "Independent", I do not mean the kind of independence which has been expressed on this thread.

You could describe ISP's as a formal group of home educated families that are involved in providing record keeping, extracurricular activities, and presenting classes for individual members.

I can understand, to some extent, with you being a Special Education teacher, the higher number of students formerly home educated, but I find that to be interesting also. We have a friend whose child is autistic. After years of battling with the local public school, who had failed to provide the child with a program that was designed to educate students with special needs, she pulled her child out.

It is an unfortunate fact in our society, but you would hope that with a situation such as our friends, parents would be diligent in finding or providing the best opportunity for their child. No individual loves a child more than a parent.

If you have provided such an opportunity for these students where their parents could not, I commend you.