Rep. McNally Announces $294,490 for Mahoning County Driving Schools

COLUMBUS – State Rep. Lauren McNally (D-Youngstown) today announced the awarding of $229,160 for the 2nd Nature Driving Academy and $65,330 for the Choffin Career and Technical Center as part of the Ohio Department of Public Safety’s Creating Opportunities for Driver Education (CODE) Grant Program.

“Making driver’s education more accessible for our kids opens the door to new opportunities for them,” said Rep. McNally. “From education, to work, to socialization, a driver’s license can be a convenience that some of us take for granted.”

The CODE grant program was created by the Ohio Traffic Safety Office (OTSO) to expand and improve opportunities for Ohio’s students, for whom driver training might be inaccessible due to a lack of a local driving school, high costs, or long wait times. Recent evidence cited by the grant proposal suggests that driving training reduces the number of injury crashes suffered by new drivers, but a narrow majority of young Ohioans were waiting until they turned 18 to apply for a license, which exempts them from all driving training requirements. To accomplish their goals, OTSO established three priority areas:

·       Increase accessibility for Ohio’s student drivers, 

·       Increase the number of driving schools and instructors, and 

·       Strengthen the quality of Ohio’s driver training practices.

Prioritized entities for funding include areas that demonstrate the greatest need, determined by factors such as:

·       Lower access to driving schools, 

·       Higher local poverty levels, 

·       Higher fatal crash rates, and 

·       Likelihood that the applicant will reach more students. 

Funding for the CODE Grant Program, which was provided by the General Assembly in HB 33, can go towards a variety of causes, including the retrofitting of vehicles, state-required decals, background checks, vehicle purchases, instructor and mentor salaries, and costs related to online driver education. The first round of grants was announced in January 2024. Thirty-four grants totaling $4.6 million were awarded to current and prospective driver training enterprises, educational service centers, school districts, and career technical schools throughout Ohio.