I have concerns for children who are being home educated - many of which have been already mentioned here - the reduction in choices and options for the children, potential for social isolation, chances that they will receive an inferior education, lack of formal qualifications meaning that they lack opportunities in terms of employment or tertiary education etc.
A huge concern I have is that there seems to be no oversight of the home education children receive, certainly in Scotland where I am, and that children who are being abused or neglected have no way of contacting another adult to tell them about that abuse. I'm not suggesting that home educators are abusive, but I think it is very worrying that parents can, if they so choose, isolate their children in the name of home-schooling or home education, whatever you want to call it.
I've only ever known 2 families who home-educated, and they were very different from each other.
One was a family where they felt let down by their son's Primary School which they felt wasn't meeting their son's academic needs, and even more worryingly, wasn't tackling the bullying which their son was being subjected to. Those parents, while trying to resolve things with the school, started to investigate home ed, and put plans in place to make it do-able. They made sure their son would have opportunities to socialise, engage in a range of activities, and engaged tutors for some key aspects of his education. It took months to organise and the parents rearranged their finances and working lives to make it work for them. The plan was always to home school for the rest of Primary School, and they were looking at different options for secondary school.
The other family were very different. They had three children who had been in at least two primary schools by the time I knew them. They are my parents' neighbours. They took the children out of the second school and took them to Australia for a new life - lasted a few weeks, came back. Got the children back into school. The mother then fell out with the teachers - shouting matches in the school corridors etc. Took them out of school. Had a shot at home ed. Tried and failed to get them into other schools. Ended up home schooling all three all the way through Primary and Secondary. The family live in a rural location, with no public transport and their mother doesn't drive. Father works long hours, sometimes away all week, so they became extremely socially isolated. We would sometimes see the children if we were out for a walk, and if they saw us, they would run and hide. Oh, and I found out that the mother was telling people that my son, then 5 years old, had cancer. He didn't.
So, first home schooling family. Yep, they had sound reasons for it, they did their research, planned it all as best they could, and it was done for the benefit of their son.
The second home schooling family. Nah! There was always something a bit off about them. They home-schooled in the end because they had burned their boats with local schools, and my parents did worry about those children, but didn't feel there was anything they could do as no evidence of anything, but still didn't feel right. And that's the thing. Those children had no one other than their parents.