After overhaul of Miami schools’ driver’s ed program, this disabled student gets his license
Elijah Solomon, 19, was always the first student to show up and the last to leave his summer driver’s education class at Hialeah-Miami Lakes Senior High School. As someone who had always dreamed of learning to drive but believed he may never be able to, he promised himself he would take it seriously. Since birth, Solomon has faced a unique set of challenges. He was born without any mobility in his legs, instead learning to rely on his arms and a wheelchair to navigate the world.
As such, learning to drive always felt out of the question. But through accommodations with the Miami-Dade Schools Driver Education program, Solomon now has a permit. He dreams of buying a car and traveling beyond South Florida, which he has never done. “I know it’s different from how it looks in Miami,” said Solomon. At the beginning of the summer of his junior year, Solomon got off the bus and passed through the gate into the driver’s education training track at Hialeah-Miami Lakes Senior High School. After talking to the other students, he realized he was the only one who had never been behind the wheel.
“I felt scared, I was pretty much worried that I might not do too good,” said Solomon.
Solomon’s dreams of getting behind the wheel are possible because of a 2021 Inspector General report which found that the driver’s education program run by the Miami-Dade school district suffered from mismanagement. The inspector general is an external watchdog agency tasked with ensuring government agencies and officials abide by the law.
Their investigative report found that only about 15 percent of the classes were functioning properly. Meanwhile, the county was sending millions of dollars in reimbursements to the district to run the program. Also revealed during the independent investigation was the lack of adaptive services provided to disabled students. Without the inspector general report bringing to light issues with the driver’s education program, Solomon may never have learned to drive. INSPECTOR GENERAL REPORT Felix Jimenez, who oversees the Office of the Inspector General, teared up multiple times in his office when talking about Solomon’s experience in the now-revamped program.
“I think it personalizes what we do, because you finally see how it makes a difference,” said Jimenez. Acting on a tip, Jimenez and his team found myriad problems with the school district’s driver’s education program. In 2021, the Inspector General released a report that found that Miami-Dade County Public Schools had knowingly submitted ineligible expenses for reimbursement, failed to provide the appropriate amount of instruction behind the wheel, failed to offer classes to private schools and failed to provide accommodations to drivers with disabilities, as required by law.
The report found that Miami-Dade County had reimbursed the school district for over $6 million when they were only entitled to a small portion of that amount, given that they did not provide 30 percent of the instruction behind the wheel, as required by law. Between fiscal years 2011 and 2016, of the 36 or 37 schools the district claimed were meeting the requirements, only 6 were operating as required by law. During the investigation into the driver’s education program, Jose Gonzalez, who works for the Inspector General, showed up at Miami Beach Senior High School to check on the cars, interview teachers and look at financial records. As he lifted the hood of one car, iguanas started climbing out in every direction. Inside, he found their nest. The car, like many others, was old, had not been used in years, and was not functioning up to standard. Around the time the Inspector General report was released, the school district said in a statement that “Miami-Dade County Public Schools is disappointed with the sequence of events that unfortunately led to the findings in the OIG report. We concur with, and are already implementing, the recommendations outlined.”
Michael Turner, the driver’s education teacher at Hialeah-Miami Lakes Senior High School, said that before improvements were made to the program, he recalls starting the ignition of one car with a screwdriver and having to use a wrench to change another car from drive to reverse. There are now 12 certified driving education ranges run by Miami-Dade County Public Schools and there are 41 vehicles spread across the programs. Five other high schools are in the process of creating behind-the-wheel training programs. REVAMPED PROGRAM
Teaching Solomon was a challenge. Since he could not reach the gas and brake pedals with his feet, they used adaptive technology attached to the steering wheel. With a lever, he could pull down on the control for gas and push the control forward to trigger the brakes. Jeffreal Johnson, who specializes in helping disabled students drive, said they tried out a few different versions of the adaptive tools to see which one was most comfortable, finally landing on what they call the “push-down adapter.” “I really thought I was going to crash, but fortunately that didn’t happen,” said Solomon. In his class, Solomon learned how to start and stop the car, how to put it in reverse, check his mirrors and make turns. He even learned to parallel park. “I had to get a hang of it,” said Solomon, but “I feel like I am pretty good,” he added.
The driver’s ed program is running better than ever, Turner said. And he hasn’t been killed by a student learning to drive. At least not yet. “It’s an easy system to grade. If they hit me, they fail,” Turner jokes.
As students drive through a course of cones, practicing turning and stopping, Turner will talk them through their moves using walkie-talkies. “Put it in park, shut it off, both drivers out, make your way over here,” said Turner to a pair of students practicing driving on a recent afternoon. Driver’s education teachers such as Turner across the district are licensed by the Department of Motor Vehicles to administer both learner’s licenses and permanent license tests.
Roberto Portela, 16, a sophomore at Hialeah-Miami Lakes Senior High School, said he failed the test the first time he took it. But he plans to take it again soon in the program and hopes to get a car this year. Like Portela, Solomon also failed the test the first time around. But after making his best attempt at studying for the second time around, he passed. His mother Marie was so happy when her son passed that she called Turner in tears to tell him of her son’s success. “He doesn’t let his disability slow him down, he wants to go out and do everything that he can put his mind to,” said his mom. Getting his driver’s license was just one of the goals Solomon has been working diligently to achieve. He works on anime and screenwriting with his best friend, and does voice over. He plans to attend Miami Dade College next semester, once he can get his financial aid right. “My motto is be always be persistent and believe you can do it,” said Solomon.
Clara-Sophia Daly is the education reporter at the Miami Herald. Previously, she was a fellow on the investigations team. She has a master’s degree from Columbia Graduate School of Journalism but credits Mission Local and KPFA Radio, both small nonprofit newsrooms in the San Francisco Bay Area, for her boots-on-the-ground journalistic training. She graduated with honors from Skidmore College, where she studied International Affairs and Media / Film.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/education/article291870835.html#storylink=cpy