COLUMBUS, Ohio—Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced Thursday that his administration is awarding more than half a million dollars in grants that will help more teenagers in low-income families get access to free driver training.

The Clinton County Health District is one of 25 agencies that will receive funding to use toward awarding scholarships. The health district will receive $15,000, according to a news release.

The grants are being awarded through DeWine’s Drive to Succeed Scholarship Program and Youthful Driver Safety Fund.

Twenty-five local governmental agencies will receive a total of $575,000 as part of the new Drive to Succeed Scholarship Program. DeWine launched this community-based teen driver training scholarship program in December 2022. The program was developed to allow eligible teenage drivers to attend driver training classes at no cost to their families.

“Teen driver training courses can cost anywhere from $300 to $600 or more, which can be a huge barrier for some families,” said DeWine. “By increasing accessibility to this important training for teenage drivers, we can better ensure their safety, the safety of their passengers, and the safety of others on the road.”

“Every year, traffic crashes claim hundreds of lives in Ohio, and educating our youngest drivers is an important step toward preventing crashes,” said Andy Wilson, director of the Ohio Department of Public Safety. “We are proud that these grants will directly support hundreds of young people who otherwise wouldn’t have had the means to complete driver education and gain the experience needed to become safer drivers.”