One of the stated goals in Nick's vision statement was to have him be able to navigate the community either independently or with assistance. Logically, what that means is to acquire skills to either use public transportation or drive, or both. In our case, we felt that both were important, however, with the caveat that public transportation in our suburban community is very, very limited, and taking a cab everywhere is very expensive. Thus, as Nick was acquiring work skills, and while transportation was still being provided by the school district, we began to explore long-term transportation possibilities.

The first thing we did was to garner an understanding of what the requirements were to obtain a driver's license and what assistance was available. One of the most important things learned was that when taking the written component of a driving test, Nick could have someone read to him as opposed to sitting alone to do a paper-and-pencil test which he would never have the hopes of passing. We also learned that not in his home school district, but in a neighboring district, there was a "special ed" driver's education summer program, divided into didactic and driving components. Nick was enrolled the summer that he was 17 years old. He did fairly well and passed the road component of the course, but not the class component. So the following summer he was enrolled again, and this time passed the class part but not the road test. So we knew he had the capacity to be successful in each area; we just needed to figure out how to put it all together. After talking with the teacher, we went to a plan B.

The driver's education teacher indicated that he believed that Nick had the capacity to be a safe and effective driver. However, with a class size of 20 to 25 students they did not necessarily have the time to devote to each student individually that they might require. He therefore suggested that we might wish to go the route of private driver's education training and illicit support from the state's Department of Vocational and Rehabilitation Services (voc/rehab) to help defray some of the costs. This led to the beginning of a long-term and very positive relationship with an outstanding vocational counselor who has helped us in many ways over the years.

The logic of asking for state support to help defray the cost of an expensive, particularized, and non-time-limited driving course was to facilitate the realization of Nick being gainfully employed in a competitive employment situation. Because that is, in part, the task of voc/rehab services, they agreed that it was a logical plan. The summary of this portion of Nick's life story is that he was enrolled in a private course, for which the cost was shared equally by voc/rehab and myself, and Nick received a driver's license somewhere between his 19th and 20th birthdays. It was a moment of great pride, along with trepidation, for all of us.