Polygamist Group's Children Pose Schooling Puzzle for Texas

The transfer of children from a polygamist group’s compound to state care in Texas has handed officials there the challenges of providing for their education.

Several days after 416 children were removed from the secluded ranch compound of a religious group in Eldorado, Texas, early this month, administrators of the 14,500-student San Angelo Independent School District organized the delivery of four truckloads of school supplies and textbooks to shelters where the children were staying in San Angelo. And this week, teachers from the district began teaching art, math, and physical education to the children from the ranch who are now in state custody.

Thus began an effort by Texas officials to ensure that children removed from the Yearning for Zion ranch, run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or FLDS, will receive schooling while their legal status is being worked out. It remained unclear late this week how long the children, removed from the ranch in the wake of abuse allegations, will be wards of Texas or how long state officials will be responsible for their schooling. It was also not clear how long Texas District Judge Barbara Walthers, who is presiding over the case in state court, will recommend they stay in...