Hi
I childmind, have 2 kids at schools, 1 kid HE and 1 foster.
It is not a problem as far as we're concerned. It shows that we adapt to each child's needs. However we only started to HE after we had done our panel. When we told our social worker we had decided to HE our eldest she wasn't bothered in the slightest.
But it could affect which children you are deemed suitable for. As an example, a child who plays truant from school would not be encouraged to go to school when your children are obviously allowed to stay home. Also foster children aren't allowed to be home educated (except for SEN?).
Some foster children may value school highly as it is their only 'safe' and consistent environment and it could appear to them that you do not value their school. So you should be prepared at the panel to explain your reasons for home schooling and even if you have had a bad experience with a school you should be prepared to show how you would support the school (homework help, attending events, positive comments about school, etc..).
The panel members may not know much about home educating and could benefit from a quick presentation on the law and your ethos and your successes.
As far as the practicalities go.. There will be plenty of meetings to attend during working hours for which you may need to arrange childcare for your kids if the meetings are outside the house. The training is only offered during working hours by my council so I have to get my own childcare to attend. We are also expected to attend promotional events to persuade other people to become foster carers and again I need childcare for this.
You could be stuck with school runs as there is little council money these days to use taxis to get children to school. You may have to drop everything at a moments notice because a foster child has walked out of school and then you must wander the streets looking for said child. You may have to avoid certain districts because the foster family live there. You have to avoid foster children having their photo taken so may need to drop out of group events briefly at times (which always feels awkward to me). There is daily recording to do which could take an hour when you keep getting interupted like me.
You can't be so spontaneous as you need to get school kids to bed on time, only go on holiday during school hols, and have to get that school uniform washed for the morning.
Oh and I forgot about Contact = where the foster child visits with their parents, you could be lumbered with transporting a foster child 3 times a week across town in rush hour to see their parents for 1-2 hours each day. Not only is that a huge chunk of the day taken up with travelling, but you then have to amuse your other kids whilst waiting for contact to finish. You can probably tell that this is my biggest bugbear! I also have child mindees to look after at the same time. Alternatively Contact might only be six times a year. Or, it could take place in your home and then you have to supervise other adults as well as the children.
I've listed some of the negatives. There are many positives about fostering which I didn't feel I needed to go into here.