Cars for Schools Program

The Bureau of Automotive Repair’s (BAR) Cars for Schools program provides retired vehicles to public high schools, community colleges, and regional occupation programs throughout the state to provide hands-on training opportunities for students.

How the Program Works

  • The Cars for Schools program diverts up to 350 vehicles annually from BAR’s Consumer Assistance Program (CAP), which helps improve California’s air quality by offering eligible consumers up to $1,500 to retire an operational vehicle at a BAR-contracted dismantler.
  • 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 back to the dismantler site by a specified date.

How Schools Benefit

  • Schools may request specific vehicle makes, models, model years, ranges of model years, or other vehicle specific features.
  • Schools may use the vehicles as needed to demonstrate principles of operation or repair techniques.
  • Students can gain hands-on experience assembling, disassembling, and troubleshooting vehicles.

How to Participate

Educators seeking more information on school eligibility may contact the Cars for Schools program coordinator at carsforschools@dca.ca.gov.

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