I understand how the parents feel, but if it were me I would fill out the silly reports rather than risk losing my kids. When you cross the Nanny State, you can get into unlimited trouble. Attitudes like yours (not trying to poke at you unnecessarily, just trying to get you to think about this issue) are the reason why government power continues to grow. "If we just appease them by filling out these forms," you think, "they'll just go away and leave us alone."
In reality, it is the fact that people unquestioningly go along with the absurd demands of government that government continually ups its demands of citizens. Appeasment does not work with liberal statists. They figure that if you'll put up with the little intrusions, you'll put up with big ones, too. They just incrementally add more restrictions and requirements to your life, and by the time you realize just how much autonomy and freedom you have lost, the govt has so much power that it is now very hard to rein in.
We have to start fighting over the seemingly benign "little stuff" or soon we'll be fighting over the not-so-benign "big stuff."
The parents fought and they lost. It would have been easier to comply with the homeschooling laws and school districts have wide latitude regarding homeschooling in Massachusetts. I wonder if they had HSLDA represent them. Masschusetts frequently harrasses homeschoolers but HSLDA usually can put a stop to it. I like the idea of boycotting Massachusetts' products and the state itself. I was considering buying vacation property on the Cape, but after reading about Fistgate, difficult homeschooling situations, and a propensity for social services in Massachusetts to snatch away children for no really good reason, I've decided I don't even want to visit there any longer, much less live there. And I've been visiting the Cape for 25 years.