Any use of NHTSA grant funds must support traffic safety goals. When determining whether to purchase educational materials, a state or subgrantee should use good judgment as a responsible caretaker of tax dollars intended to support traffic safety. As always, all costs charged to NHTSA highway safety grants must be within the scope of the grant, address a highway safety problem, and help meet performance measures. Paper, pamphlets, flash drives and CD-ROMs that contain educational materials are allowable because their purpose is to contain and convey educational information.

In order to be considered educational, distributed material must provide substantial information and educational content (not merely a slogan) to the public and have the sole purpose of conveying that information. If a subgrantee chooses to provide educational content on a flash drive or CD-ROM, that device must be an economical method of conveying the information.

Examples of allowable educational materials include traffic safety themed coloring books, activity books, pamphlets, brochures, posters, flyers, etc.