As summer vacation nears, students are beginning to think about their plans for the break. Some will work a part-time job. Some will volunteer. Some will tan all day on the beach. Certainly, many will end up spending hours in a stuffy classroom with dozens of other teenagers working towards their driver’s licenses.
Although it may feel annoying to spend vacation hours in a classroom or observing other student drivers from the backseat of a car, some Brookline students don’t get the opportunity to take driver’s education in the first place. For these students, obtaining a driver’s license is even more difficult: it’s a question of cost, access and opportunity.
Joslyn Vendola, a science and lead teacher in the ExCEL program (a therapeutic learning environment for students with emotional and/or behavioral disabilities), hopes to change that. To address inequality gaps and to serve students with diverse learning needs, she led the charge beginning in the spring of 2023 to design and implement the high school’s very own driver education program: Buckle Up Driving School (BUDS). Ultimately, BUDS did not come to fruition beause town administrators ruled that the liability risks associated with using a town-sponsored vehicle to offer driver’s education were too great, but three years later, she’s ready to try again.
Vendola said that there are many reasons why enrollment in a driver’s education course might be difficult or inaccessible for families, including logistics, trouble navigating the application process, special educational needs, not having a car to practice and, above all, cost. She hopes BUDS will address many of these barriers.
“There are so many things that are just harder to access if you do not have your own transportation,” Vendola said. “If [the high school] is really setting students up to be successful for any next step, then [driver’s education] is a big thing that we should be offering.”
Vendola worked closely with Director of Special Education Robin Fabiano and several other teachers to complete the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV) requirements needed to implement a driver’s education course. Fabiano said that Vendola’s ideas and initiative impressed her.
“[BUDS] is really solving an essential problem for students and it’s trying to also address the equity gap that we have in a way that’s incredibly creative and proactive,” Fabiano said. “I think sometimes in school, we only focus on the academic solutions, and this was a way to really address a lot of needs outside of a traditional academic approach.”
The proposed design of BUDS would create a course that operates under a similar structure to existing driving schools with one key difference: sessions, which would be offered outside of school hours at select intervals throughout the school year, would be staffed entirely by teachers dual-certified in driver’s education and special education. The BUDS team wants the program to be accessible to all students.
“The goal is that you have very experienced teachers teaching this course that can meet the needs of a wide range of learners. The curriculum is designed with that in mind,” Vendola said. “We could really include some students that might be hesitant and might feel more comfortable taking [driver’s education] at their high school with people that have been teaching for a really long time.”
BUDS also aimed to address the cost component: (full tuition at Brookline Driving School is $1,075). Tuition would operate on a sliding-scale model based on financial need, with some students paying full price and some receiving partial or complete scholarships. Senior Jonuel Santana said that cost is important to him, and even partial financial support could help.
“There’s a big difference between paying the whole [tuition] and paying half of it or a quarter of it,” Santana said. “I only live with my mother, and it’s not the same as living with two parents. If [driver’s education] is very expensive, then I won’t be able to take a course.”
According to Vendola, last year the BUDS team completed several key processes towards the realization of the program, including certifying four teachers as driving instructors through the RMV (funded by a Brookline Education Fund grant). They also gained initial RMV approval for usage of classroom spaces to host the course, finalized and gained RMV approval for the course curriculum, designed a course handbook for families and procured a car for the on-road portion of instruction.
The final question was how to insure the car. Vendola hoped that it could be added to the town fleet, which would mean that the town would cover gas expenses, oil changes, maintenance work and insurance in the event of an accident (the Town of Brookline self-insures damage to vehicles when operating on the road). Town administrators, however, were reluctant.
The BUDS team pitched the project to the Curriculum Subcommittee of the Brookline School Committee and requested a $10,000 grant to help kickstart the program. However, Committee members raised concerns regarding the administrative and logistical challenges of implementing the program, particularly the cost to the town if the car were insured and involved in an accident.
Liability ended up being the sticking point: according to Vendola, Town Counsel wrote a memorandum advising against the program and then-Deputy Superintendent of Schools Jodi Fortuna followed up over email to confirm that while BUDS was an “excellent and heartfelt idea” for Brookline students, the “unresolved issues around risk and liability” were too significant to move forward with it at the time.
Now, two years later, the BUDS team is back at it. Vendola has kept her instructor licensure active and recently broached the subject with town administrators. She hopes that with recent School Committee turnover she will be able to work through the liability concerns that stalled the program the first time. She said that she recently reached out to School Committee chair and former Head of School Bob Weintraub, who expressed his support for BUDS.
“There’s a lot of work that we do [on school committee], and [BUDS] would probably be seen as not a big deal,” Weintraub said. “But it’s a big deal for the many, many, many kids who can benefit from it.”
Vendola said that school districts in Massachusetts, such as Medford and Hingham, have been able to overcome insurance and liability issues and implement driver’s education programs. She plans to use these examples as proof that Brookline can do the same.
“It’s a long process and it’s a lot of work, but other schools are doing it,” Vendola said. “Let’s figure out what we have to do, rather than just advise against it.”
While it’s too early to say if BUDS will be approved the second time around, Fabiano said she sees the vision behind the program as imperative to the school community.
“Our mission is to make sure that students are ready for the 21st century,” Fabiano said. “Financial literacy, collaboration, communication, driving, adaptive skills, all of these play a big part in making students well-rounded. Just assuming academic success is the only driver these days is, I think, shortsighted.”
