This is the problem, most of the ghost children are actually those who are enrolled in a school. Who are known but for one reason or another have very poor attendance and things haven’t been chased up. Yes, it’s easy to say children are safer in school as they are ‘seen’ and things can get picked up but that’s just not the case when so many are missing school with no apparent follow up to account for their whereabouts or safety. Some of the worst abuse cases have shown that there is lack of follow up, professionals not relaying information or acting on things.
Yes, as a home educating family we are seen and we are on the radar as such. It was very different in school though, when one of my children was refusing school as they were so burned out no support was offered even when we were crying out for it. No one checked up on us, it was just accepted that they weren’t in school. Remarkably, my child was most at risk at that point and instead of being a ghost child was in fact ghosted by the school.