YOUNGSTOWN — Some students in the Youngstown school district will find it easier — and less expensive — to obtain their driver’s license, and the opportunity could soon be available district-wide.

Thanks to a state grant, students at Choffin Career & Technical Center have been able to take a driver’s education course at no cost and some are ready for on-the-road training.

Choffin soon will have a car ready for them to log those driving hours.

“We’ve always said ‘wouldn’t it be great if we could get the kids their driver’s license,” said Choffin Assistant Director Jen D’Amico. “Kids in Youngstown are really up against it financially, and then there’s also just the practicality of getting to driver’s ed school.”

D’Amico said a solution arrived in her email in late 2023, in the form of information about Creating Opportunities for Driver Education (CODE) grants from the Ohio Traffic Safety Office. The program made approximately $2 million available statewide.

D’Amico said she applied for the reimbursement grant and was notified last January that the school has received $65,330 to use for a new driver’s ed program.

“The whole idea of the grant is to get a driving school started,” D’Amico said, “so we can be self-sustaining in the future and incorporate it into what we do every day. After June, we’ll be on our own as far as running it, but the grant helps us get it all started.”

D’Amico said helping students obtain their license only furthers Choffin’s objectives of getting them ready for their professional and educational careers beyond high school graduation.

“We try to get kids jobs, and get them working, get them ready for their future,” she said. “It doesn’t matter where they are going when they leave us, we’re trying to get them set for that, and ultimately we’d like them to have a job in their chosen field. Having that license will only help them.”

D’Amico said she used $24,000 to purchase credits for online driver’s education classes. The courses are a $100 value, but students pay nothing. She said 134 students are either working on the 24-hour course now or have completed it.

For the 15 ready to start taking driving lessons on the road, the school soon will have an answer to that as well.

Choffin has purchased a 2022 Kia Forte from #1 Cochran in Youngstown, which D’Amico said will need to be retrofitted for driver’s training usage. The car cost $17,922.

With the remaining $23,400, D’Amico said the school will soon hire and train part-time driver’s ed teachers to instruct students on the road. If there is money left over, she said she will purchase more online course credits.

“In the future, the school district will pay for that,” she said. “But everyone in the district has been so supportive, and nobody has told me ‘we can’t afford that and and we’re not going to do it.'”

D’Amico said the program is only available to Choffin students for now, but they plan to expand the offering to other city high schools in the future.

“Right now, in the grant period, it’s being offered to Choffin students only,” she said. “In the future, when we’re on our own, we’ll be able to branch out and provide it for East, Chaney, Wilson, and Rayen Early College students as well.”