There is nothing in the teachings specifically to state that
a child must not be separated from its parents and its home for the first five
years of its life. In a Tablet, however, 'Abdu'l-Bahá points out that formal
education at school begins when the child is five years old. Shoghi Effendi has
indicated in one of his letters that the formulation of system of education
based on the teachings can only be gradually undertaken, and has to be
accomplished by Bahá'í scholars and educationalists of the future...
- The Universal House of Justice (From a letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States, March 10, 1975; compilation: ‘Lights of Guidance’)