For several months, the Penn Hills school board has been trying to write a student residency policy that doesn't have more questions than answers, while defining who is a resident and what constitutes a "temporary" absence from the state.

On Tuesday, the board likely will vote on a policy that officials insist isn't directed at U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., and the controversy that swirled around his children. The children once were enrolled in a Pennsylvania-based cyber-charter school, even though the family lives in Virginia.

The policy lists a number of reasons a family could relocate outside the state and still be considered Pennsylvania residents: service in the armed forces, service due to election or appointment to a federal government office or nonvoluntary assignment outside of the Commonwealth in connection with humanitarian or emergency relief efforts.

The family must "intend to return to the District at the conclusion of such service."

"We have three families, one in each category [who are affected]," board member Linda Schlegel said.

The board wants to clarify its stand on the relatively new concept of school-by-computer terminal for those who are attending this type of school but not from a house in Penn Hills.

Board President Richard Vuocolo said the resolution the board will consider at Tuesday's meeting leaves open the question of what "temporary" means.

He said it is conceivable that a child whose parents left Penn Hills for extended armed service duty, elective office or humanitarian work could go through 13 years of Penn Hills-funded cyber-charter schooling and never set foot in the district.

"I'm proposing four years [limit]," Vuocolo said.

"That's not even a full term for a senator," board member Heather Hoolahan argued.

For good measure, the board also will vote on a resolution asking the state Legislature to amend the cyber-charter school law to extend the time a school district has to question a student's residency.

Now the district has seven days once it has been notified of the student's enrollment to tell the cyber school and the Department of Education that the student is not a resident.

The board says this isn't enough time.

The district lost an appeal that challenged the Santorum children's right to Penn Hills-funded tuition because their appeal was not made quickly enough.

The board meets at 7:30 p.m. in the administration offices on Collins Avenue.