GREENSBORO — Driver’s education could resume in the coming weeks — minus the $65 fee — for Guilford County teens now that state lawmakers have passed a budget.
Registration for the classes could open Monday if other pieces fall into place, including the Guilford County Board Education approving a revised contract with the North Carolina Driving School. Then classes could resume a week or so later, maybe around Oct. 5, said Leigh Hebbard, director of athletics and driver’s education.
The school board plans to get an update on the driver’s education program when it meets tonight.
Officials expect that discussion to cover discontinuing the $65 fee, which the board implemented earlier this year amid uncertainty about whether state lawmakers would continue financial support of driver’s education. The discussion tonight would also address the process for refunding the fee to those who paid it to complete driver’s education over the summer.
Guilford and many other school systems across the state suspended their driver’s education programs this summer, which is a peak time for youth to take the course, because of the budget uncertainty.
The state General Assembly reached an agreement over the $21.74 billion budget last week — about three months late and weeks after the new school year began. Gov. Pat McCrory signed the budget into law last week.
With the new budget, the state would rely on proceeds from late fees for vehicle registration to fund driver’s education in fiscal 2017. The late fee amount would also increase to generate enough money to support the program.
It’s not yet clear how much state funding Guilford County Schools will receive, but officials expect to receive enough to cover the program costs. Guilford spends about $1.3 million each year on driver’s education classes held at local high schools, Hebbard said.
Once registration opens, priority would likely go to students who would be 15 by the first day of classes, Hebbard said. He estimated it could take about a week to get students registered, filter out those not yet 15, and resume classes.
The classes typically fill up within about 15 minutes of registration opening, Hebbard said. One other option that might be discussed is scheduling a staggered registration by school sites to cut down on the volume of people trying to register at one time, he said.
The details about how and when the program would resume are still being worked out.
Another wrinkle is that Guilford already has about a two-month backlog of students in driver’s education because the program was temporarily suspended this summer when state funding ran out. Some students had gone through the classroom portion but had not yet gotten behind the wheel to complete the program.
Hebbard estimated that backlog could be cleared by the end of the year.
About 5,300 students take driver’s education through Guilford schools each year, Hebbard said.
Meanwhile, other area school systems also are preparing to resume driver’s education classes.
Rockingham County Schools suspended its program this summer and only allowed students who had started the course in the spring to finish it.
Rockingham school officials plan to resume their driver’s education classes in the next two weeks, Charles Perkins, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, said in an email.
Officials in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools also expect to have enough state funding to resume their program, spokesman Theo Helm said in an email. They’re working to restart driver’s education classes next month, he said.
Registration for the classes could open Monday if other pieces fall into place, including the Guilford County Board Education approving a revised contract with the North Carolina Driving School. Then classes could resume a week or so later, maybe around Oct. 5, said Leigh Hebbard, director of athletics and driver’s education.
The school board plans to get an update on the driver’s education program when it meets tonight.
Officials expect that discussion to cover discontinuing the $65 fee, which the board implemented earlier this year amid uncertainty about whether state lawmakers would continue financial support of driver’s education. The discussion tonight would also address the process for refunding the fee to those who paid it to complete driver’s education over the summer.
Guilford and many other school systems across the state suspended their driver’s education programs this summer, which is a peak time for youth to take the course, because of the budget uncertainty.
The state General Assembly reached an agreement over the $21.74 billion budget last week — about three months late and weeks after the new school year began. Gov. Pat McCrory signed the budget into law last week.
With the new budget, the state would rely on proceeds from late fees for vehicle registration to fund driver’s education in fiscal 2017. The late fee amount would also increase to generate enough money to support the program.
It’s not yet clear how much state funding Guilford County Schools will receive, but officials expect to receive enough to cover the program costs. Guilford spends about $1.3 million each year on driver’s education classes held at local high schools, Hebbard said.
Once registration opens, priority would likely go to students who would be 15 by the first day of classes, Hebbard said. He estimated it could take about a week to get students registered, filter out those not yet 15, and resume classes.
The classes typically fill up within about 15 minutes of registration opening, Hebbard said. One other option that might be discussed is scheduling a staggered registration by school sites to cut down on the volume of people trying to register at one time, he said.
The details about how and when the program would resume are still being worked out.
Another wrinkle is that Guilford already has about a two-month backlog of students in driver’s education because the program was temporarily suspended this summer when state funding ran out. Some students had gone through the classroom portion but had not yet gotten behind the wheel to complete the program.
Hebbard estimated that backlog could be cleared by the end of the year.
About 5,300 students take driver’s education through Guilford schools each year, Hebbard said.
Meanwhile, other area school systems also are preparing to resume driver’s education classes.
Rockingham County Schools suspended its program this summer and only allowed students who had started the course in the spring to finish it.
Rockingham school officials plan to resume their driver’s education classes in the next two weeks, Charles Perkins, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, said in an email.
Officials in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools also expect to have enough state funding to resume their program, spokesman Theo Helm said in an email. They’re working to restart driver’s education classes next month, he said.
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