Sophomore, Jack Henry Palazzo, is currently going through driver’s education classes at Crossroads in Killingworth. However, you won’t find him in any actual school but rather in a Zoom meeting, a common strategy many people have transitioned to since the pandemic in 2020. There, the price to take classes is $310 to take the online classes, in addition to $75 for one-on-one driving.
However, if Palazzo attended a school that offers driver ed, such as classes offered at Westbrook High School, he could take the same classes, including classroom training, with much more convenience, and would get on-the-road driving instruction as well.
Driving classes are not new to students. Drivers education classes started up and became very common around the 1930’s, requiring driver’s to take classes. This law was put in to ensure safety on the road and make new drivers more knowledgeable. The first step in receiving a driver’s license is taking a permit test. The permit test is based on your state’s driver’s manual. The person taking the permit test must be 16, and pass a vision test. A permit is needed for 90 days until an official road test can be scheduled. In between, driver’s education is needed. 
High schools in Connecticut such as Westbrook and Trumbull high School offer Driver’s Education within the school as a way to help new driver’s with the transition to driving, and to make the roads safer overall.
The price in total is around $460 to take At Westbrook High School. However, many highschool students attending do not take the course. The class meets most days after school, and teaches the typical driver’s education curriculum.
Morgan used to offer classes after school, having a place in the old Morgan building for classes to take place. The class could have been taken at home with someone to supervise hours or through Morgan’s after school program. The teacher was Mr. Negrelli, a computer science teacher, as well as a math teacher during his career.
“That guy was super smart and super funny. You would do the written part of the course in his classroom, and then you would go out and drive with him when you were ready for the next part,” added John Madura, a current teacher at Morgan who went there as a student.
During the course, you could go pick up your friends who were also taking the class, and practice with them. Overall, Madura explained that it was an unforgettable experience to help kids learn driver’s education in a fun and meaningful way.
That program has since stopped, and has not come back. and was never offered during school hours. “It’s always been an outside of school entity,” said Keri Hagness, Morgan Principal.
The reason that Morgan does not have drivers education now is because there are no programs that have directly reached out to the school, so the program never resurfaced. The program stopped during the 1990’s.
But, there might be demand. Student, Saoirse O’Beirn said, “If we had a driver’s ed program at Morgan, I would definitely look into taking it because I think it would be cheaper and easier for not only me but also my parents.”
Currently, the options include Ray’s Driving School in Madison, Connecticut which costs $496, including the price of the license itself. This is a very popular in person location for driver’s education. Another common place is Crossroads in Killingworth, Connecticut. 30 hours of online instruction here is $310. The 8 hour course on safe driving regarding drugs and alcohol is $150. Extra in person driving sessions here cost $75. The Next Street offers 30 hours of driver’s education for $699.
Student, Hernika Singh, said, “Since so many students at Morgan are involved in sport and extracurriculars, driver’s ed being a part of the school would allow students to take the class during sports seasons and still get their license on time.”