Teenager Driver Education & Teen Driver Training
in San Diego, CA
The State of California and the Department of Motor Vehicles require
that anyone under the age of 18 who would like to obtain a driver's
license be required to take a special training course. This course
is called Driver's Education. It is given in two parts. The first
part is the classroom portion, which is a required 30-hour class.
The second part is behind-the-wheel training, which includes six
hours of instruction with a professional driving instructor given
in two-hour increments.
This specialized course can only be offered by DMV licensed driving
schools or secondary schools that have a qualified curriculum and
certified teachers.
Classroom | Internet
Program
CLASSROOM
Most private driving schools will allow students to begin classroom
training at the age 14years and 11 months. During the school year,
these 8-hour classes are offered on Saturdays. Each student is required
to attend 4 Saturdays, for a total of 30 hours. Some driving schools
require students to start on a certain date and take all 4 sessions
in a row. Other schools allow you to start anytime, and take the
sessions in any order you wish as long as you take one of each session.
Each session covers a different set of subjects and does not run
into the next session. In other words, if you started on session
3, you now must completes sessions 1, 2 and 4 but in any order you
wish.
Driver's education classroom facilities are inspected by the DMV,
but they vary a great deal both in their comfort and availability.
Some classes, for example, have only one bathroom. Some have six.
Some classrooms have padded chairs to sit on, others have students
sitting on the floor with a clip board.
Each driving school that offers driver's education has a DMV approved
curriculum; however, finding a qualified teacher is often a difficult
task. Many schools attempt to teach the class by showing videos,
while other schools seek out highly trained driving instructors
who can teach each part of the curriculum as it should be taught.
This, of course, costs a little bit more money but produces a safe
and knowledgeable driver in the end.
To begin with it is important that any student or their parents
interested in attending driver's education class should understand
the real purpose behind these classes. Some people have the mistaken
idea that driver's education classes are designed to prepare a student
to pass the DMV written test. In actuality this is the furthest
thing from the truth. It's true that through this course you will
obtain enough knowledge to pass the required test, but it's designed
to cover a vast array of topics that will assist them in everyway
possible in their driving career. Following is a brief example of
the types of subjects that should be taught in a driver's education
class.
- LAWS - registration, pedestrian, traffic, lighting, smog,
sound, right of way, etc.
- WHAT TO DO AT THE SCENE OF AN ACCIDENT - first aid, reports,
insurance info.
- AUTO INSURANCE - learning the different parts of the
policy
- LEGAL SYSTEM - dealing with a police officer, fighting
a ticket, traffic school
- VEHICLE MAINTENANCE - month-to-month maintenance
- HOW TO BUY AND SELL A VEHICLE LEGALLY AND SAVE MONEY
- DEFENSIVE DRIVING - vision habits, space management,
behavioral training
- HOW THE ROADS AND SIGNS ARE DESIGNED TO WORK
- MOTORCYCLE LAWS AND SAFETY TECHNIQUES
A well thought out driver's education class should offer all of
these subjects and much more. Student should be required to take
notes in class and share their notes with their parents, making
this course a family learning experience. WHY? Because Mom still
believes that you can't legally change lanes at intersections, and
Dad believes that yield signs are yellow and black.
OBTAINING A LEARNER’S PERMIT
When a student first enrolls in a driver’s education program
at the age of 15 ½ years and older, they will be issued a
DMV application form along with a DMV Driver’s Handbook and
a set of sample study questions. Filling out the application form
and having their parents sign it, reading the DMV Handbook, and
studying the sample questions that they were provided is a homework
requirement.
Once the student has completed all four classroom sessions, they
must be enrolled in the Behind the Wheel portion of the driver’s
education course. This can be done either by paying for both parts
of the course at the beginning, or paying for the second part of
the course once they graduate from the classroom portion. The student
will then be eligible to go to the DMV and apply for a learner’s
permit. They can either walk in or make an appointment. Walking
in without an appointment may take an hour and a half or more. A
previously scheduled appointment may take 30 minutes to one hour.
Before leaving for the DMV appointment make sure that you take
five items with you.
- A DMV application form signed by your parents or guardian.
- Your birth certificate or passport proving that you are at least
15 ½ years old.
- Your social security number.
- Cash or check for $27.
- Your driving school certificates (one proving that you have
completed the 30 hour classroom course, and the other showing
you are enrolled in a behind the wheel driving program).
The DMV will require all applicants to take two tests in order
to acquire a learner’s permit. The first test is a 46 question,
multiple-choice quiz to find out whether the applicant is knowledgeable
of driving laws. Out of these 46 questions you cannot miss more
than 8 questions. The second test is an eye test designed to find
out if the applicant’s vision both in daylight and darkness
is adequate to drive a vehicle. If you wear contact lenses or glasses
for the purpose of long distance vision be sure to wear your contact
lenses and/or take your glasses with you.
Once both of these tests have been passed, a learner’s permit
will be issued. This learner’s permit however will not be
valid until the student takes their first driving lesson with a
licensed driving school. At the end of their first driving lesson
(approximately two hours), the driving instructor will stamp and
sign their permit. This stamp is what makes the learner’s
permit valid and legal. Once this has been done, the student can
now drive with anyone 25 years of age or older with a valid California
driver’s license. When operating any vehicle it must be properly
insured. The supervising person is required to be in the front seat
of the vehicle, sober and alert, and able to take control of the
vehicle in an emergency. (NOTE: If a driving school offers to sign
and stamp a student’s permit without actually providing two
hours of driving instruction, it is in the best interest of the
parents to report this to the DMV. This is not only unethical but
could lead to additional legal problems.)
The law requires that all drivers under the age of 18 years of
age be given a minimum of 50 hours of practice time. This time is
in addition to 6 hours of professional instruction by a licensed
driving school. This 50 hours of instruction is broken down into
a minimum of 40 hours of day time practice and 10 hours of night
time practice. There are no set rules as to how this practice time
must be given. It is important that the parents or guardian keep
a record of driving time with their teenager. We suggest marking
it on the family calendar, putting down the time 10 minutes, 20
minutes, etc., the student drove and drawing a circle around it.
If the driving time was at night put an “N” in the circle.
This will allow you to add up the daytime and night time hours on
a weekly and monthly basis. NOTE: Some states require twice as much
practice time as California. Many parents provide their teenager
with two times this much practice before they allow their teenager
to apply for a driver’s license.
DRIVING LESSONS
The State of California requires that a student under the age of
18 take a minimum of 6 hours of behind the wheel training from a
DMV licensed driving school. These lessons are normally provided
in 2 hour increments. They include the basic fundamentals of driving:
Techniques for turning, backing, lane changing, following traffic,
developing vision habits, space management skills, exposing them
to freeway, curves, heavy traffic, along with basic maneuvers like
parking, u-turns, etc.
The teenage student is then required to practice the techniques
they were taught with their parents, explaining to their parents
what they were taught and why. This allows the parents to understand
what the student learned and the concept behind the different driving
techniques that they were taught.
Since driving at night is one of the most dangerous times of the
day to drive, we recommend that at least 1 hour of the 6 hours required
by DMV be taken at night with a professional driving instructor.
This allows the student to learn how and why to adjust their high
and low beam headlights when following traffic, facing oncoming
vehicles, and driving on curves and hills. To arrange a night lesson
is sometimes difficult, particularly in the summer time when it
does not get dark until 9:00pm. We recommend our students take the
last two hours of driving instruction in the winter months, after
5:00pm. It is however not a requirement. It’s just a suggestion.
Additional driving lessons beyond the 6 hour required DMV course
are available. Parents often request additional freeway lessons,
mountain driving and/or lessons to be given in a standard shift
vehicle. This is particularly true when parents live in mountainous
regions or intend to buy their teenager a standard shift vehicle.
THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT DRIVING LESSONS
The 6 hour DMV required driving course is priced differently from
one school to another. The variation in price is due to a variety
of different reasons. The obvious reason such as increases in gasoline
prices, special driving school vehicle insurance are things beyond
the control of the driving schools themselves. But beyond the obvious
some schools to save money don’t take their students on the
freeway, except for going on and off the freeway a couple of times.
The reason for that is to go onto a freeway correctly, the student
must accelerate rapidly up to the speed of the freeway traffic (65
– 70 mps). This requires burning up more gasoline. It’s
a little more dangerous and if you stay on the freeway very long
at these speeds, you’ll put more miles on your vehicle. Our
school believes that freeway is one of the most important areas
in which to learn to drive safely, and that a great deal of time
should be spent on changing lanes, entering and exiting, and developing
a high level of space management skills. This takes time, but we
feel that’s the way you do the job correctly.
Some schools believe that one way to save money is to pick up a
student and towards the end of their lesson, pick up the next student.
This helps to eliminate travel time from one student to the next
allowing them to save money on gas, put less miles on their car
and get more students taught in one day. The problem that we see
with this is that it takes away the privacy of the student driving.
We don’t feel it’s conducive to learning to have a stranger
in the back seat giggling at each error that the driver makes. All
our lessons are private.
Some driving schools specialize in teaching in different foreign
languages. When teaching in English, it becomes difficult for English
speaking students to understand what they are saying. This makes
it not only more dangerous but more frustrating for the student.
If a particular school gets a reputation for this problem, their
customer base is greatly reduced. To compensate for this loss of
income, they continue to lower their prices to attract more business.
All driving schools are licensed by the DMV, but they are a long
way from being equal. Some schools have instructors who are highly
qualified and extremely efficient at their trade, while others lack
knowledge and professionalism. You may find these schools will spend
a large amount of time in parking lots talking to their students,
keeping them in quiet residential areas instead of exposing them
to all types of driving environments. A wise way of selecting a
driving school is not by price. Neither the high priced nor the
low priced school may be a good value. You may find that word of
mouth from students who have taken lessons and were extremely happy
with the school and instruction given is the best yardstick. Bear
in mind that in most cases the instructor involved is the key to
good training. So insist on asking for a particular instructor that
you have heard was excellent.
PARENT PARTICIPATION
Some driving schools allow parents or guardian to ride along with
the student in order for them to understand how the driving instructor
is teaching and the different techniques and terminology being used.
This is something you should consider doing. It will help to prevent
the possibility of undoing what the instructor has taught. It will
keep us all on the same page, allowing the parents to understand
and use the same terminology and spot errors and improper techniques
that they would not otherwise have knowledge about. NOTE: Our driving
school supplies the parents with driving tapes or CDs that explain
what and how we teach, and explain the important things to look
for while supervising their teenager’s driving. This 90 minute
tape is free, and we feel that you will find it extremely useful.
We advise you to listen to the tape prior to taking your teenager
driving.
INTERNET PROGRAM
Driver’s education is also available for those students who
wish to study at home via the INTERNET. American Driving School
offers an internet program. It’s very simple to enroll in
the program. It costs less than the classroom program, and may take
less time to complete. However, before you decide on using our internet
program, be aware of the following information.
The internet program is necessary because there are a few students
who because of work or school obligations are not available to participate
in a classroom driver’s education program. There are students
who live in remote areas and/or don’t have adequate transportation
available to participate in a classroom driver’s education
program.
There are some advantages to the internet program as well as some
disadvantages. One of the advantages is that it is convenient because
you can take the program in the convenience of your home, in the
time slots that fit your schedule. One of the disadvantages is that
in a way you are teaching yourself. Just reading something on a
screen does not replace a teacher who can explain, emphasize, and
motivate students.
One of the reasons why you will find that so many companies offer
internet driver’s education programs is because they are high
in PROFIT. It is expensive to rent a classroom. It is expensive
to hire a driver’s education teacher. In many cases it is
difficult to find a driver’s education teacher who has the
knowledge and qualifications to teach this program properly. It
is a whole lot easier to sell you a CD that costs very little to
produce at about the same cost as you are paying for the classroom.
It is our opinion, however, that if you don’t have special
needs like we have mentioned; we would like to advise you to take
the classroom program rather than the internet program. We feel
that students receive a much better education and overall a better
value.
Many of the companies that offer this home study internet program
do not offer behind the wheel training. Once you have completed
their program, you will receive a Certificate of Completion and
what happens next is something most parents and teens are not aware
of. They must search around for a driving school. Although it sounds
like it wouldn’t be all that difficult, they often find it
actually costs them more money.
When a student signs up with a driving school that offers both
classroom and internet driver’s education along with behind
the wheel training, they receive a discount for enrolling in both
courses. If on the other hand they take an internet program from
one company and then enroll in behind the wheel training with another
company, they will pay more in the long run. For example, if you
enroll in driver’s education and behind the wheel training
with the same school you pay $319. If however you take an internet
driver’s ed program from one company for $75 and then enroll
in a driving school for behind the wheel training, you could be
charged $269 for the 6-hour behind the wheel program. If you add
the $75 internet program to the $269 behind the wheel program, you
end up paying $344. You lose $25.
Most driving schools offer both internet and classroom and behind
the wheel training. Many of the companies you may see advertising
in school newspapers do not offer behind the wheel training. They
operate on a high profit structure just selling you the CD for internet
access for the same price that you would pay at a real driving school
that offers both courses. BEWARE. DO YOUR RESEARCH. ASK QUESTIONS
before you decide.
For questions please see our most frequently
asked questions.
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