Cars for Schools Program

The Bureau of Automotive Repair’s (BAR’s) Consumer Assistance Program (CAP) helps to reduce air pollution by permanently retiring thousands of vehicles from California’s roads each year.

In 2018, a suggestion at a quarterly BAR Advisory Group meeting was to divert some of those retired vehicles to automotive training institutions. As a result of that suggestion, BAR collaborated with the Air Resources Board (ARB) to create the Cars for Schools program. This program will provide up to 350 vehicles annually to public high school and community college automotive programs throughout the state to provide hands-on training opportunities for students. Schools may request specific vehicle makes, models, model years, or ranges of model years, or other vehicle specific features and may use the vehicles as needed to demonstrate principles of operation or repair techniques. All vehicles are provided to schools at no charge. However, schools are responsible for covering the cost of transporting vehicles from the dismantler site to the school and back again.

To retain the pollution control benefits of CAP, participating schools must sign a memorandum of understanding with BAR agreeing to specific terms such as not operating the vehicle on public roads and returning the vehicle prior to the end of BAR’s current contract with dismantlers in May 2022.

Schools may obtain further information regarding the Cars for Schools program by contacting:

Denise Cunningham
Bureau of Automotive Repair
10949 North Mather Boulevard
Rancho Cordova, CA 95670
Phone: (916) 403-8837
Email: carsforschools@dca.ca.gov

Students and instructor examining an automobile engine


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