This article investigates and explains the reasons and the way Chinese government, in 2004, allowed the children of migrant workers to attend public schools like the children of other citizens, and legalized some of the migrant children schools. The legalization of the migrant children education can be attributed to the government's effort to bring the rampant expansion of private educational market under their control. The growth of unauthorized migrant children schools from increased needs for educating migrant children in Beijing and the conflict and compromise between the state, and the migrant children schools and migrant workers are also studied in this article. In this article, the process of the growth of migrant children schools, the following legalization of the schools and the eventual permission given to the migrant children to attend public schools has been interpreted as the retreat of the state and the emergence of civil society in the field of education. At first, Beijing local government did not take responsibility of educating migrant children. Neither did they approve or support the migrant children schools. On the contrary, migrant workers and the schools for their children used both the negotiation and resistance strategies against the state to carry on, making the education of migrant children legalized in the end. The negotiation and compromise between the state, and the migrant workers and migrant children schools broke new ground in the relationship of the state and society in modern China.