I'm in Florida, and it's pretty easy to homeschool. You do have to register with the local school board and at the end of each year you either have to submit a standardized test score, or have the child evaluated by a certified teacher.
There are a few homeschooled moms that are also certified teachers and they will do an honest assessment of your child.
If the child is not "up to grade level" there is a grace period...I think you have at least a year, maybe two, to work on the problem.
Also, in our county, there are homeschool mentors...successful homeschool moms, and if the child is miserably failing on all levels, the homeschool office of our local school board will help you set up a meeting with the mentors. They evaluate your curriculum and will give pointers how to bring the child up to grade level.
I think it's a good program, because if your child is way below grade level, and you're not willing to meeting with the homeschool moms for help, then it gives the homeschool office a pretty good idea that you're really not serious about homeschooling.
P.S. My kid went through the dual credit program at our community college, so when he was ready to get a high school diploma, he also had earned his AA. All the state community college required of me to prove he had "graduated" HS. and in order to award his AA, was a notarized affidavit. The State U where he's transferring didn't even require a HS certification, just wanted to see his AA. Plus we had no problem getting awarded the state's full tuition scholarship award for resident kids going to in state universities (in fact they had a special office just to handle homeschoolers who were applying for the award.)
We have not suffered in the least from the minimal restrictions and standards put on homeschoolers in our state.
Thanks for the information. It sounds like a good program.
to me, this does not sound "easy." what you describe is too much restriction... standardized test scores? evaluation by a certified teacher? ick...