New traffic and driver license laws in effect Sept. 1
Several Texas laws went into effect on September 1, 2009. We have highlighted ones that we have received the most questions about in this email. If you have further questions, please contact us.
DPS Road Test Requirement
If the student obtained his/her permit PRIOR to September 1, 2009, the student does not have to take the 
DPS administered road test. This information was given to us at a public hearing conducted by the Texas Education Agency in July and was confirmed to me by officials at the DPS headquarters in Austin (both by their License Issuance Division and general counsel). Any one obtaining their permit on or after September 1, 2009 will be required to take the DPS administered road test.
Provisional License Restrictions Extended
These are now for 12 months instead of six months. They are:
- no driving from midnight to 5 a.m. unless for school, work or medical emergency.
- no more than one minor in the vehicle other than siblings.
- no use of wireless communication devices except for emergency.
The same rule applies – those who obtain their permit prior to September 1, 2009 these restrictions (except for the wireless communication device) are only for 6 months.
Provisional license and permits expire on the minor’s 18th birthday and cost $15.
Regarding Safety Belts
All occupants of a vehicle, no matter their age, must be secured by a safety belt, no matter where they are seated in the vehicle.
Any child younger than 8 years of age be restrained in an approved child passenger safety seat unless the child is at least 4 feet, 9 inches in height.
Limit on cell phones in school zone
HB 55 makes it illegal to use a wireless communication device in a school zone unless the vehicle is stopped or a hands-free device is used.
Driver Education Requirements Increased
Driver Education now requires 34 hours of in-vehicle. Twenty additional hours have been added. Since Driver Ed in a Box® requires 50, there is no change for our customers.
Driver Education now also required for 18 to 21 year olds. Effective March 1, 2010 anyone under 25 must take a driver education course as prerequisite for licensing.
Comments
Adding a requirement that 20 hours of additional behind-the-wheel instruction be completed before issuing a Certificate of Completion for a driver education course is a step in the right direction. These additional hours can be provided by a certified instructor, a parent or a licensed adult over age 21 (who cannot be compensated).
However, unless this instruction follows a structured, focused and specific format with correct and frequent feedback, there will be little benefit.
The reasoning behind the law is that new drivers need experience and the previous requirements do not included sufficient experience. Well, I certainly agree with that. Unfortunately, one of the problems is that the same people who are driver education providers are the ones who have failed to produce safer drivers in the past are, for the most part, passing the buck to parents to do the bulk of the training.
Why is that? Is that because most driver education providers focus on pushing the students through the minimal requirements so they can collect their fee and bring in some more students and push them through? Unfortunately, that may occur more far too often. And this includes programs in both the public and private sector.
Most parents do not want to teach their kids. That’s why they send them to school. They want someone else to be responsible for their students’ education. The same is true for driver education. What many parents are sometimes unaware is that they are teaching their students’ to drive - by their example.
From the time that young person gets the notion in his/her head that “Hey, I’m going to get my license so I can drive”, that teen is watching his/her parents’ driving like a hawk. Whether we like it or not, our children learn our patterns of behavior and consciously or not, they often pick up our less desirable habits.
The fact is, all kids are parent-taught. It is not whether or not the parent is teaching them, the question is “What are they teaching their children?”
Involving parents in the process is a great idea but dumping it on parents who don’t want to do all the teaching and thought they were paying someone else to do that is not going to solve the problem.
The solution is for the driver education provider to commit to insuring that no Certificate of Completion is issued until the student has mastered the skills and habits of collision-free driving.
Arbitrary and artificial minimal time requirements will not do the job.
Drive like your life depends on it…because it does.
Sincerely,
Patrick Barrett
Driver Ed in a Box®
- Patrick Barrett - Owner of Driver Ed in a Box LLC.
I’m a certified Dr. ED. Instructor. I do not issue a certificate of completion until I know they can do the task successfully. Now completing the task successfully with me doen’t mean the student will drive correctly when out of site. As the saying goes”out of site, out of mind” but, if the law changes to 34 hours of be-hind the wheel, high schools will not be able to teach Dr. Education. The student will learn more from the Dr. Ed. teacher. Students tell me all the time their parent/s did not teach them in the parent home school Dr. Ed. Where else will the student receive the appropriate teaching? Unless the High Schools continue to be able to teach Dr. Ed., more crashes, mishaps, and lives will suffer. High Schools cannot continue teaching Dr. Education if 34 hours of be-hind the wheel is required by the high schools. It’s a very good idea for parent taught at home course to be 34 hours(because they don’t do the 14 hours, never-the-less 34). If the student takes Dr. Ed. at school you can be assured the 14 hours will be adhered to,plus the class room instruction . High Scool Dr. ED. classes have a wide array of visual products, hands on, and the oral communication with peers that is needed to give a more tangible outlook to the student. I believe taking away Dr. ED. from the high school is a major mistake. We are asking for more teen mishaps!
Patrick, I agree with you in that parents need to follow a guided outline of what they should be reviewing with their children. It is unreasonable and fiscally irresponsible for us as a taxpayer to expect the school districts to pay for more than 6 hours of behind the wheel training to any one students. Most teachers are contracted to work no more than 6 hours a day. A school here in Pennsylvania might have 500 students per high school. A teacher is under contract to work 192 days. The district would have to hire 2 full time and one part time teacher just to teach behind the wheel training. This comes at an expense of 100,000 just for employee pay. This is conservative breakdown of teacher’s pay. Most schools have opted for a co-pay model that allows them to hire private contractors who provide the behind the wheel training at half of the expense. Also, parents agree to should half of the cost for the contracted instructors and it allows driver education teachers to focus on the classroom experience. I propose another alternative to this dilemma. In Pennsylvania the students have to have 50 hours of behind the wheel training provided by a certified instructor, a parent or a licensed adult over age 21 before they may attempt to get their junior license. This license comes with restrictions until they become 17 1/2.
I propose that the students follow along a 50 hour written course that is broken down by hour provided by the state so parents can follow along. Parents then can sign off on each hour and then a certified instructor signs off during their 6 hours of road time to determine if the child has met the standards set forth by the state for successful completion of the course. If parents do their job then the team work structure will benefit the children immensely. The only problem I see with this thought is that a lot of parents I find do not want to get into the car, because they feel they lack the knowledge or skills to get the child to basic proficiency behind the wheel. I believe that the instructor should be with the child the first two hours working with the child in a parking lot to teach them the basic skills to equip them to venture out into the road.
As educators we run into the attitudes that parents expect that their child should be educated completely by teachers and that parents take a back seat approach to their child’s education. Whether it is in the classroom or in the driver seat of a car. This attitude has to be changed if we as educators are going to provide a sound approach to teaching children how to drive in conjunction with the parents.
Brad Bixler
Owner/Operator
Shield Driving School
http://www.shielddriving.com