Taylor Frankie Paul, a reality TV star from “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” and the father of her 2-year-old son were ordered Thursday to stay 100 feet (30 meters) away from each other for the next three years as a Utah court commissioner continues to assess custody plans for the child. Paul has been unable to spend unsupervised time with her son since an April 7 hearing, when Third District Court Commissioner Russell Minas said Paul had a history of volatile behavior directed at her former partner, Dakota Mortensen, while kids were present. Minas on Thursday described the pair’s dynamic as “very toxic” before granting Paul and Mortensen’s dueling requests for protective orders against each other.

Federal agents have served search warrants in Minnesota in an ongoing fraud investigation of publicly funded social programs for children. No details about possible crimes were disclosed, though armed agents were seen at childcare centers in the Minneapolis area on Tuesday. Gov. Tim Walz welcomed the action. Minnesota was the site of an immigration crackdown that led to the deaths of two people this year. Before that crackdown, the government brought charges against dozens of people, many of them Somali Americans, who were charged with fleecing a federal program that was meant to provide food to kids.

A couple from Utah face parental kidnapping charges after being accused of taking a 10-year-old child to Cuba amid a complicated custody fight involving the child’s gender identity. Court document show someone from the child's family raised concerns the child had been taken to Havana for gender-affirming surgery. It’s not clear if the defendants, who include the child’s biological father, actually planned on surgery for the child. The return of children kidnapped by a parent and taken overseas often is settled through negotiations or legal petitions. In the Utah case, federal officials worked with Cuba to deport the defendants and sent a government aircraft to retrieve the child.

More kids than ever are attending state-funded preschool in the U.S., 1.8 million of them the last school year. A report by the National Institute of Early Education Research finds that 37% of 4-year-olds and about 10% of 3-year-olds are enrolled. However access to free preschool remains uneven across states. California contributed significantly to the increase by making all 4-year-olds eligible for a program called “transitional kindergarten.” But the rapid rollout meant the state missed many quality benchmarks last school year. Evidence shows that high-quality preschool can positively impact a child's future, but challenges such as uneven access and funding persist.