Texas Driver Education Stats to Be Published
According to the recent bill that was passed on in Texas, the Department of Public Safety will start publishing the statistics on crash rates among drivers ed graduates. The statistics will show specific Texas drivers ed schools and companies and crash rates among students who completed their drivers education classes with these companies. This will allow students to make more educated decisions when the time comes to select the drivers education program and also help the Department to identify driving schools that are not doing a great job at teaching drivers ed.
Texas Drivers Ed Law Changes
Making this information available to the public is part of a larger campaign for safer roads in the state of Texas. The campaign was launched in September 2009, when the state mandated that all teenage license applicants take the road skills test before they can be issued with a full Texas drivers license. Up until that point, students who participated in a state-approved Texas driver education course could avoid taking the road skills exam and get an unrestricted license without ever being tested.
The second part of the program was realized in March of 2010. Starting March, anyone between ages of 18 and 24 who wants to obtain a Texas drivers license must participate in a driver safety program. Previously, license applicants who were over 18 years of age could just visit the nearest DPS office, take the permit test, receive the official Texas drivers permit and schedule the road test for the next day - there were no requirements for any driver's education or traffic safety courses.
Finally, the third part of the program went into effect in May. Teenage license applicants are the ones who are primarily affected by the change as the number of supervised driving hours has increased from just 14 to 34. This is a welcome change as supervised driving hours is when the teenager gains the so-needed driving experience and Texas used to be one the states with the lowest number of compulsory driving hours. The new rule brought Texas from the bottom to the very top of the list.
Finally, making the information about crash rates among Texas drivers education course graduates public. This will affect all types of classes, parent taught drivers education, courses provided by high schools and classroom drivers ed offered by commercial driving schools. Up until now, you chose your driving school mostly by comparing the prices, locations and schedules. Today, you can also start looking at how good any particular program actually is by comparing the crash rates among the school graduates. There is probably no better way to evaluate the school's performance than to check how well their students are doing in the real world.
