New American Driving School

The New American Driving School is a program, begun by Second Start in the fall of 2018, as part of its role with the Welcoming Concord Initiative. The original goal of this program was to expand employment opportunities for refugees and immigrants, allowing them to become economically self-sufficient.

Though our driver’s education classes were initially intended only for New American adults we have now expanded our classes to accept both teens and adults regardless of whether they are New Americans or if they were born in the United States.

Though we will assist students with lower level English skills, to be successful in our program students need to be able to read English at a 3rd grade level.

For students under the age of 18, a custodial parent or legal guardian is required to attend the first class of the session with the underage student. Students must be at least 15 years and 9 months old before the day of their first driver’s education class. More information about requirements for driver’s education students under age 18 can be found in the state of New Hampshire’s  Parent’s Supervised Driving Program Guide.

Our eight week course includes 32 hours of classroom instruction, 10 hours of behind the wheel driving experience and 6 hours of in-car driving observation.

Classroom instruction is on Monday and Wednesday evenings from 6-8 pm, and focuses on defensive driving and risk-prevention. In-car instruction and observation times are scheduled individually with the instructor at the beginning of each class session.  Classes are held and driving instruction begins and ends at Second Start’s building at 17 Knight Street in Concord.

Upon successful completion of the course, students will receive a completed State of NH Driver’s Education certificate.

Class Tuition is non-refundable and must be paid in full to secure your registration in a class session.  The tuition cost for our class sessions is $800 per student. Grant funds may be available to New Americans and qualifying low income students to lower the tuition costs of our classes.

To register for classes, please complete the registration form linked to this page. Turn in your completed registration form, a photocopy of the student’s Non-driver’s ID, permanent resident card or employment authorization card and the class fee to

Second Start’s main office at:

17 Knight Street
Concord, NH 03301
Fax: (603) 228-3852
lscarcello@second-start.org

The office is open Monday – Friday, 8:00 am – 5:00 pm.