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SAN ANGELO, Texas - James and Sarah J. Jessop spend all their time on the road these days, traveling an 1,800-mile circuit to see children now scattered across Texas.
"It's very difficult," said James Jessop, who had a simple request for the Texas judge who approved a plan Monday that would keep those children in state custody for up to a year.
"I'd appreciate it if he'd give our children back," James Jessop said.
The case was one of about 40 reviewed Monday by a panel of judges who made it clear they were not revisiting the abuse allegations that brought the Jessops and other parents from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to court.
The proceedings included four children of sect leader Warren S. Jeffs, whose attorneys sought the return of one son's Book of Mormon and more visits for the mother of another son.
The hearings continue today in five courtrooms in the Tom Green County courthouse.
But it took just a day to see how the nation's largest child custody investigation is straining the Texas system and parents - primarily mothers - of the 461 children taken from the polygamous sect.
On Monday, most caseworkers said they had not met with the women until arriving at court. Mixed-up names and case reports slowed some hearings; others were held up because attorneys had cases in different courtrooms.
Attorneys described siblings scattered from Amarillo to Liverpool, despite pledges from Texas Child Protective Services to keep them together.
Parents' attorneys objected repeatedly to the use of boilerplate service plans that lack specific details about their clients' situations or what they must do to regain their children.
"My client has no idea what she needs to do next," said attorney Donna Guion.
Child caseworkers said the plans were devised by a committee at the state office and specific requirements will be available by June 2.
Every plan was approved, although some judges asked caseworkers to consider adding visits and to be sensitive to schooling and religious worship concerns expressed by parents.
Some parents are signing the plans and some are not, indicating they want to work with CPS to regain custody of their children but object on principle to the document's abuse allegations or reunification requirements.
The plans require parents to complete counseling, psychological evaluations, parenting classes and educational assessments; to document their marriages, children's births, living arrangements and income; and to obtain vocational training or education to become financially self-sufficient by next April.
Questions about who can provide the evaluations and whether parents can arrange and pay for them now were not answered Monday. Neither were questions about whether the women can return to the YFZ Ranch, live with other FLDS women or with the fathers of their children. One caseworker suggested Merilyn Barlow, 18, should consider transitional or low-income housing.
Merilyn Barlow is one of two mothers the state acknowledged Monday is an adult; the state has now agreed that four of 26 mothers whose ages are in dispute are not minors.
Brenda Jessop, 37, appeared at a hearing for her sons Isaac and Raymond. She was seeking more visitation time with the boys, sons of Warren Jeffs, who are staying at Cal Farley Boys Ranch in Amarillo but have been separated there.
The judge declined more visitation time for Jessop.
Steve Pickell, an attorney ad litem for Isaac, asked why one of the boys' Book of Mormon had been taken away and not returned - a problem voiced in other hearings as well.
Pickell also asked whether the state's service plan requires the boys' mother to renounce her FLDS affiliation.
Caseworker Missy McCarty said such a pronouncement by mothers would not be required, and added she did not know why the book was taken.
Judge Marilyn Aboussie said the state does not intend to interfere with the children's religious texts.
"I would like to hear if there was a good reason for that. I can't think of one," she said. "We would need an excellent reason for that."
Outside court, CPS spokeswoman Bit Whitaker said the FLDS children's copies of the Book of Mormon had photos and quotes of Warren Jeffs taped into them. Workers had to remove them, Whitaker said, as Warren Jeffs is a convicted sex offender despite the fact he is the boys' father.
Warren Jeffs was convicted in Utah of being an accomplice to rape in the marriage of a 14-year-old to a 19-year-old. Caseworkers said Warren Jeffs, awaiting trial on additional charges in Arizona, has been mailed copies of the service plans for his children.
In hearings for two other children of the sect leader:
* Sharon Barlow, the mother of 6-year-old Samuel, also sought additional visitation. Her son uses a prosthetic leg and is particularly close to his mother, said attorney John Caldwell, who represents the boy.
* Shannon Johnson, the mother of 3-year-old Maria, appeared to support placing the girl with her mother, Maria's grandmother, who has left the FLDS church. Janice Johnson said she was living in Nevada, but had moved to San Antonio in the hopes of caring for her grandchild.
Jerri Lynn Ward, who represents James Jerry Jessop, grilled a caseworker about why the state listed homeschooling at the ranch as a concern. Jessop and his wife Sarah J. Jessop have five children in custody.
CPS officials have said in the past that homeschooling is not a trigger for an abuse investigation, she said.
The plan does not specify whether homeschooling will be banned but says the children will be tested and parents will be required to follow advice from professionals.
Ward called Tim Lambert, director of the Texas Homeschoolers Coalition, as an expert witness to describe how CPS has used homeschooling to level abuse and neglect charges against other parents. He said the service plans seem to leave the FLDS parents with few options if the state pushes for the children to get a secular education.
Judge Ben Woodward asked CPS not to move the Jessops' children into public schools.
In several hearings, attorneys said mothers were providing homeschool packets for their children; so far, Texas has not devised an education plan for the FLDS children.
At least one judge was asked to bar children from receiving tapes and books made by Warren Jeffs, which the FLDS use as part of their school curriculum.