Reply #6: There's a religious community close to me (Satmar Hasidim)

[phylny]

and they have a separate town with a separate school system. Some of the families receive public aid, and as citizens are eligible for all government programs as other people are.

One of the difficulties they have to overcome is with "inbreeding" and birth defects, and from what I understand, many people in this religious community have a genetic profile so that when a match is about to be made, they check before things get to far to decrease the chance of birth defects.

Here are two links to the eventual court case regarding the establishment of their school district in New York State:

http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/93-517.ZS.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Board_of_Education_of_Kiryas_Joel_Village_School_District_v._Grumet