Parent-Guided Driver Education Partnership Plan

The State of Iowa has created an opportunity to develop a partnership driver’s education program. This program gives parents more flexibility in completing the requirements, while the driver’s ed program still oversees that the standards are acceptably met. This program has been approved by the state and must follow the guidelines highlighted below.

Outline of Plan:

Classroom:
Coursework will be completed online using google classroom. Textbook, worksheets, tests, videos, and other activities will be accessible online. Once enrolled in the course you will be given a code to enroll in the classroom. Activities are self-paced, and parent guided with the instructor overseeing that all activities are completed. Students must score an 80% on the coursework to pass the “classroom portion” of driver’s education. This portion meets the 30 hours of classroom instruction that is mandated by the state

Driving:
6 hours of behind the wheel instruction and 6 hours of logged observation time are needed to meet the driver’s ed requirements. This plan allows the parents to provide some of the driving instruction to their child. At a minimum, the final hour of driving must be completed with an instructor and is a “cumulative final exam” to make sure that the student possesses the right skills to be a safe driver on the road. If the student does not pass the final cumulative exam additional hours may be required. Parents can ultimately determine the number of hours driven with an instructor and the number driven with the parent. Example: a parent chooses to drive 3 hours with their child an have their child complete 3 hours with a driver’s ed instructor. The parent led driving hours must adhere to the guidelines below:

• Parent-Led Driving Instruction:
(Note: Instructions for videotaping, submitting, and steer clear app can be found on google classroom under the “Instructions” section of the course.) All parent led driving instruction hours must be video-taped and will be viewed and scored by a certified driver’s ed instructor. (Specific lesson plans will be attached to guide those hours of driving.) If a student scores above a 90% on those lessons they will have the option to drive 1 final hour with an instructor to complete their cumulative final exam. If a student scores below a 90% on the parent led driving lessons, they will be required to drive 2 hours with an instructor. If a driving lesson does not meet the standards a student can be required to repeat a specific lesson or lessons. Note: All videos must be uploaded and scored by a certified driving instructor

• In conjunction with videotaped lessons, student must also download “Steer Clear” app onto a smart phone or tablet. Steer Clear offers driving-focused training that encourages young drivers to think more about safety and practice safe driving habits. In includes 5 short training modules with short videos which much be completed. At the beginning of the drive, the student or parent will start a “new trip” which assesses their braking, cornering, and acceleration. It gives an outline of trip alerts such as rapid acceleration, hard braking, and cornering. Upon completion of the module and drives based on the attached lessons a certification of completion will given that will need to be sent to the driving instructor. Note: this certification of completion and final score will factor into individual scored lessons, but more weight will be placed on the individual driving lessons which will be videotaped, viewed, and scored.

• 6 hours observation
In addition to the hours of behind the wheel driving completed with parents and instructor, student must also log 6 hours of observation time to be completed with another licensed driver. A log of dates, times, and notes must be kept of that driving time (see attached driving log) In addition, a checklist of skills that must be observed is must be checked off the list.

• Successful Completion of Parent-Guided Drivers Education

Upon successful completion of the parent guided driver’s ed program a certificate will be upload to the DOT website. Those certificates will be accessible when a student wishes to obtain their school permit or intermediate license. Students must have held an instructional permit for at least 6 months prior to obtaining a school permit. Students must have held a instructional permit for a least 1 year prior to obtaining an intermediate license.