Yet another story this week drove home the point that educators and parents with students attending school during the COVID-19 pandemic this fall likely will have to stay on their toes.

In Wednesday’s Eagle, the Seneca Valley School Board discussed several minor changes to its plans for the fall — including updates to its online learning programs and clarification about mask-wearing policies.

But what stuck out most was a revision to a policy about providing hand sanitizer on school buses to children.

At a meeting Monday, Superintendent Tracy Vitale told the school board that the district would be unable to provide hand sanitizer on school buses — not because the district didn’t think it important to do so, but because of a regulation by the state Department of Transportation.

Therefore, parents must provide students with their own hand sanitizer — and it must be in bottles no larger than three ounces.

In the scheme of things, this is fairly minor. Bottles of hand sanitizer are cheap to purchase, and it’s likely not going to be a major inconvenience for parents to get ahold of some.

That being said, it seems fairly arbitrary for the Department of Transportation to enforce such a rule at this moment in time when small safety measures — such as hand sanitizer — can add another layer of protection for students.

Although the preferred method for protecting oneself against the spread of COVID-19 is routinely washing one’s hands with hot water and soap for 20 seconds, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has noted that the second-best option is hand sanitizer.

The return to school this fall will test the boundaries of social distancing, and there’s a good possibility it’ll be an indicator whether COVID-19 will return in full force.

Children spread germs faster than adults because they are more inclined to place their fingers in their mouths and less inclined to cover their mouths when they cough or sneeze. Although teachers will enforce hand washing as much as possible, it’s difficult to keep track of the actions of every student.

Not allowing school districts to provide hand sanitizer on buses seems to be — under the present circumstances — a bit shortsighted.

The Department of Transportation might consider easing such a rule until the pandemic settles down and schools are successfully adapting to the challenges they face.

— NCD