COLUMBUS — Gov. Mike DeWine and Ohio Department of Public Safety Director Andy Wilson announced more than $4.5 million in grant funding to increase the number of quality teen driver training programs in Ohio.

School districts in Crawford, Marion and Richland counties are among the recipients. Buckeye Central, Elgin, Ridgedale and the Shelby City Schools were each awarded $63,694.

A total of 34 grants were awarded through the Creating Opportunities for Driver Education (CODE) Grant Program to increase driver training capacity at nearly 100 locations throughout Ohio. Grant recipients, including current and prospective driver training enterprises, educational service centers (ESCs), school districts and career technical schools, can use funds toward the cost of training vehicles, instructor salaries, online education and other administrative costs.

The grant program was funded in partnership with the Ohio General Assembly and is administered by the Ohio Traffic Safety Office (OTSO), which increased the total awards from $4 million to $4.5 million in response to the significant number of quality grant applications. Grants were awarded based on the amount of funding available and community need.

The announcement follows a number of traffic safety initiatives for young drivers announced by DeWine, including the Drive to Succeed program, which was developed to allow eligible teenage drivers from low-income families to attend driver training classes at no cost to their families.

This article originally appeared on Marion Star: Schools awarded grants for teen driver training programs