[texasmomma]

Has anyone heard anything about those kids going into care?

[BrandyHagz]

They are in supervised care of the adults from the FLDS compound in the Civic Center, I believe.

Total of 404 women and children, was the last total.

[FullQuiverMamma]

How sad for everyone involved. I am assuming that if they were removed, they will at least temporarily be in state custody.

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HOUSTON -- Texas officials said Monday they had taken more than 400 children into temporary state custody while they investigated allegations that girls at a remote polygamist compound were being sexually abused by men.

"This is the biggest single removal in the history of this agency," Child Protective Services spokesman Darrell Azar said Monday night. "We had enough information to show a judge that many of these children had in fact been abused and others were in jeopardy."

The decision to take temporary custody of the 401 children represented a significant ratcheting up of state intervention; child-welfare officials initially placed just 18 children under state control and moved others to a more neutral location to interview them.

Azar said he would not discuss the details of the abuses uncovered, but affidavits detailing the findings could become public this week.

State officials said 133 women voluntarily had chosen to stay with the children instead of returning to the YFZ Ranch, a gated compound outside Eldorado. It was built by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a sect that broke away from the Mormon church in the 1930s after Mormon leaders barred polygamy.

The sect's self-styled prophet, Warren Jeffs, was convicted in Utah last year of being an accomplice to the rape of a 14-year-old girl who was promised to her cousin. He is now held in Arizona, where he faces similar charges.

State troopers and child-protective workers raided the compound Thursday after receiving a report that a 16-year-old-girl had been sexually and physically abused.

A subsequent search warrant revealed investigators suspected the girl was forced to marry a 50-year-old man and gave birth to his child eight months ago, when she was 15.

As of late Monday, state officials said they had not found the girl, but they raised the possibility that she was among the 401 children in state custody at a fort in the nearby city of San Angelo, about 40 minutes to the north.

Officials said the girls and women were frightened by meeting outsiders, making interviews difficult. For most, the talks were their first exposure to the outside world.

[jllambert]

I talked to a Case worker who is a friend and is in that area. She said they are hoping relatives will come forward to take in a lot of the kids, but they will also be placing them in foster homes and shelters all over the state.
There are not ever enough foster homes for the kids in our area, so I don't know how they are going to be able to find homes for all these little ones.

It is all so sad!

[DianeScraps]

A TX foster mom on a coupon board I am on said she had gotten a call to take kids, but her beds were already full

[tylind23]

I've been called by my agency too. I live quite a ways away in a different part of the state, so my agency doesn't know if we'll get calls here or not. Our Austin office has already been hit with calls. Anyway, just in case my agency is calling all it's foster homes to get a count of who's willing to take kids. They even asked if I'd be willing to convert my office into a bedroom if it came down to it. At this point, we have no idea if we'll even get calls, though.

[BrandyHagz]

Just out of curiosity (because I don't know how Texas is, but I know how Illinois is) - how will all of you support their faith?

I ask - because most of these kids have special clothing requirements, special food requirements, special 'environmental' requirements (no TV, radio, Internet) and because this is 'faith' related - it's protected (at least, it is in most states)...

I wonder (having been exposed to a number of FLDS here where I live) if potential foster parents have really considered all of the 'adaptations' that will have to be made.

Their faith is still 'protected' - even if the plural marriage portion of it isn't...the rest is...

[DianeScraps]

I'm not in TX, but it was a topic discussed with our social worker that we were willing to make accomdations, though we did restrict our home to accomadations for Christian or Jewdaic based regilions. We were told that some homes were not willing to do that. Our area has a rather diverse network of Christian and Jewdaic relgious congregations would be easy to accomdate.

Though, with other children in the house, my concern with light of the news reports would be possible sexual abuse issues.

[5starday]

If there aren't enough foster homes for these children in Texas, would they consider sending the children to other states if there were foster homes available?

It is my understanding that the children and women keep changing their names when interviewed because they are taught to mistrust outsiders. It sounds as if it will be a nightmare trying to keep their records straight if they really don't know who the child really is or who they belong to.

I feel for these children. They must be so frightened.