Driver’s education is officially back on track in Beaufort County and is proceeding as scheduled for the month of October.

The book portion of the course started back on Sept. 29, and fortunately, the driving portion never stopped, according to Joe Tkach, driver’s education coordinator,

The Beaufort County Board of Education put all driver’s education classes on hold at the end of August due to the North Carolina General Assembly’s failure to pass a budget on time, thus putting funds in limbo. With legislators discussing whether to do away with state funding for the program altogether, at least one-third of the counties in the state made the same decision to suspend classes.

But the board decided to allow any students in the middle of the driving portion of the course, which comes after the book portion, to go ahead and complete it.

As of July 1, the state stopped funding the courses until a budget decision was made, but the school district shouldered the cost of courses during July and August.

Beaufort County Schools pays the state driving school about $225 per student to cover the cost of providing a certified teacher and car for the driving portion. State funds then go to reimburse the school district.

Tkach said Beaufort County Schools was reimbursed after the budget decision was made, so the district lost no money but was reimbursed at a later date.

The only delays the county experienced were two classes for the book portion of the course, and any problems related to those delays has since been resolved, he said.

Each year, Beaufort County’s driver’s education program serves about 600 eighth graders and rising ninth graders from public and private schools, according to estimates from Tkach.