The Perry School Board approved the first reading of a new policy in regards to homeless children and youth at their meeting Monday.

Superintendent Lynn Ubben says this is part of the federal Every Student Succeeds Act, which replaced No Child Left Behind.

“It’s hard for a Board, and you know one of our Board members in particular (President Kyle Baxter) because you think you’re on a school board and it’s local control, which it’s supposed to be but not everything is local control.  Just when we talk about school finance, it’s like ‘Oh, we’d like to spend it on this’ but no.  Certain things can only be spent for certain things.  We like to have as much local control because each district is unique.  Then again we have federal guidelines and Iowa guidelines and we need to follow those.”

Ubben says if they didn’t pass the policy, they would open themselves up to potential litigation.

“There are always some policies and some federal laws and some state laws that maybe we don’t agree with every piece and every sentence or statement but you know, obviously those are things that we need to do.”

The first reading passed on a 3-1 vote with Baxter voting no and Director Marjean Gries being absent.