The fact of the matter is that there are a few well-publicized cases, like the Yates, and the Jacksons in NJ, and the family in NC, who are indeed using home schooling as a cover for other problems. But, statistically, it is insignificant. The vast majority of families reported to CPS are families with children not yet of school age. See this link for a start:
http://nccanch.acf.hhs.gov/pubs/factsheets/fatality.cfm
It points out that from national statistics, only 12% of fatally abused children are kids 8 and older. As far as non-fatal abuse of older children is concerned, most is sexual abuse and most often occurs when a child lives with a single parent. Do you know how many single parents homeschool ? I can tell you that I am one, and after 4 years I have yet to meet any other single parent who homeschools.
So, substantiate your post, please.
I read an awful lot and don't recall where I saw that info. But I'm pretty sure it applied only to school age children (hard to see how a toddler could be categorized as "homeschooled" in any formal statistics). Also would have applied only to reported cases, and unfortunately, most older children who are being sexually abused don't ever get reported. I know that pre-school aged children are certainly the biggest category of severe child abuse cases, and it's for the same reason that "homeschooled" children are disproportionately represented in abuse cases of older children -- nobody is in a position to see the early warning signs, so by the time the situation comes to light, it's usually because the child is found dead, or one parent has brought a critically injured and often unconscious child to a hospital emergency room, or a terrified emaciated battered child has escaped the home and been found in the streets.
I don't think the highly publicized horror story cases are anywhere near the majority of homeschooling-as-cover cases. They're just the ones with most awful outcomes. Especially in rural areas, most not-really-homeschooling cases probably wouldn't even get reported to authorities. And most that do get reported usually end up being resolved with nothing more dramatic than a court order requiring that the child be sent to school, after a court-ordered assessment test finds that the child is many years behind grade-level standards and that there is no evidence of organized educational activity at home. Most of the not-really-homeschooling that goes on doesn't involve vicious beatings or starvation or sexual abuse, but just keeping the child at home without teaching him or her basic academic skills, and usually requiring the child to spend an inordinate amount of time doing chores that the adults ought to be doing. Still legitimate for the state to intervene IMO, especially since reams of studies have shoen that a child who hasn't learned to read well by around age 10 has missed teh neurological window and will never be able to learn to read really well.