During a preliminary school board discussion on Sept. 6, East Hampton School District officials indicated they are looking into the idea of adding driver’s education — complete with on-the-road driving lessons — back into the school day.
The challenge, said Adam Fine, the district superintendent, is how to incorporate such a program into the school budget. Because it’s just an idea so far, rather than a concrete plan, there are no projections yet for how much it would cost. “Overall, the big expense to this would be the purchase of two automobiles,” he said. “We would need two cars — specially equipped cars. . . . I do highly recommend it.”
During the height of the pandemic, schools were only allowed to run the classroom — or “theory” — portions of drivers education, leaving many parents to teach the hands-on driving lessons themselves.
Himself a parent of a new driver, Mr. Fine told the school board that “there’s a lot of important things that come out of school, obviously, but when we talk about putting our kids behind the wheel, with the proper training and proper access to instruction, it is important — especially out here.”