Do your schools provide this? Apparently ours does not. argh I just looked online and found 'Drivers Ed in a Box' lol !!

My almost 14 yo says all his friends are getting their drivers permits. This expires when they are 16 when they get an intermediate license and at 18 yrs of age they get the real thing. As long as they have not had any accidents, etc... So basically they get 4 yrs of driving with an adult now.

Wow- that has changed alot from when I was a teenager!

By Mommmie on Friday, April 21, 2006 - 08:44 pm:

Not here in the schools, not anymore. You have to seek it out yourself. You can take a $300 class with a company or parents can teach it to their own kids (curriculum is about $25 dollars and is 1500 pages and can't be self taught).

Then there all these new rules that I haven't figured out yet. Something like the first 6 months you have to log so many hours with an adult to move on.

By Reds9298 on Friday, April 21, 2006 - 08:54 pm:

Not in IN anymore either. Only through driving schools now. Too bad...it was so much fun in high school!! It's also around $300 here.

By Tink on Friday, April 21, 2006 - 09:12 pm:

We haven't had it in our school district since I was in high school. My parents paid for it and it was around $300, then. I'm sure it's probably gone up since then. Our learners' permit also has some strange rules. I haven't looked into it too much yet, but I think they have to have it for 6 months before applying for a license and then they can't drive with anyone under 18 without an adult in the car and they can't be driving after 10pm. I'm so glad I have a few more years before dealing with this!

By Annie2 on Friday, April 21, 2006 - 10:37 pm:

Our high school has it. My daughter is working online to get her permit. She can even take the test online. The day she turns 15, in May, she can go to the DMV for her permit. This fall she'll take driver's ed in school. She can get her license the day she turns 16. It will be a restricted license until she turns 18.

By Dawnk777 on Saturday, April 22, 2006 - 08:05 am:

Our high school doesn't have it, either. We ended up paying almost $300 for Sarah to take driver's ed with a private company.

By Ilovetom on Saturday, April 22, 2006 - 08:46 am:

Our private school has it. They got their permit at 15 and now drive alone at 16. I guess it varies depending on where you live, so I am glad I live here. LOL.

By Conni on Saturday, April 22, 2006 - 09:30 am:

Well, I think I read they have to have someone 21 and older in the car with them until they are 18... The bad thing is my ds will be 17 when he gradutes high school!!! ROFL So he will not get his real license his Senior yr. The summer after his Senior yr. He said he may use his Dad's address in Missouri and get his license there. I need to look up the laws there for him.. (my ex lives just over the Missouri line)

Honestly, I dont have a problem with them needing an adult in the car with them. He also told me you could get a *hardship* license too, so I may look into that later on and see what it takes to get one of those.

I know when we were in England a family we had dinner with had a 16 yo. She could get her license at 17, but they were soon changing it in England to 18yo !!!

By Conni on Saturday, April 22, 2006 - 09:31 am:

By the way having someone 21 in the car would have sure come in handy when I was in high school and wanted some purple passion!!! ROFL Geez

By Karen~moderator on Saturday, April 22, 2006 - 09:49 am:

It was provided as a half credit course when I was in high school, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth.

Now you have to find a private class and pay around $300 for it. It includes X number of hours of classroom instruction and X number of hours of actual driving. Passing Drivers Ed will definitely get you a discount on your auto insurance too! I insisted that both of mine take the course in high school.

In Louisiana, I got my license at age 15. Now you can get a learner's permit at 15, if you take Drivers Ed you can take the test and get a restricted license at 16, or NOT take it and get a license @ 17. Unless they have changed it again. When you have a restricted license you can't drive between 11 PM and 5 AM, unless you are coming/going from work or possibly a school function. Either way, I think they are way too lax here when it comes to that.

By Babysitbarb on Monday, April 24, 2006 - 02:13 pm:

They have it at our school but, it is during the summer right after school is out and it cost around $300. I was told it just went up some.I think it goes for 5-6 weeks. They can get their permit at 15 and they have to drive only with someone over 21 and they have to wait 31 days after their 16th birthday to get their license. Then they aren't allowed to drive with anyone under 21 in the car unless there is someone over 21 rding for 90 days after they get their license.
If you don't take driver's ed you have to wait 6 months after you turn 16 to get your license.

By Karen~moderator on Monday, April 24, 2006 - 03:39 pm:

In my area, the courses are offered year round, but most of the kids elect to take them in the summertime. Some of the places that offer it have classes daily for something like 2 weeks, or you can go all day on Saturdays. Then they start the actual driving rotation. I see the driver's ed cars EVERYwhere. All hours of the day and night. I remember the first time they picked Jeff up to drive, it was in the summertime and we were having one of our typical southern heavy thunderstorms. If you've never been in this part of the country for one, you can't imagine what they are like. 2 or 3" of rain can fall in an hour, and it rains so hard, you literally cannot see 10 feet in front of you. Roads flood in a matter of minutes. Anyway, I was freaking out about it, and the instructor said they had to learn to drive in that anyway................better to do it when there was another brake in the car.

By Bemerry84 on Monday, April 24, 2006 - 04:19 pm:

My son just finished his drivers training $320.00 here in MI, not offered by the schools anymore. He can drive with anyone 21 and over until he reches 16, then he will get his license to drive.

By Breann on Monday, April 24, 2006 - 08:49 pm:

My kids still have awhile before this is an issue. But, so far, it is offered our our local highschool. Starts at 7am and goes till 8 am for so many weeks. The school day starts at 8am. So, it's not during school hours. Driver permits are issued at age 15 and licenses at 16 with no restrictions.

By Kay on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 11:58 am:

Our school does not offer it, and I wasn't impressed with the $300 driving school around here, so I self-taught my kids - I'm now working with my 15 year old (our baby), who passed her written test at the DMV and has her driving permit, and we're slowly expanding her driving circle to include busier streets and different situations. If we 'pass' her, she can get her drivers license at age 16, but one of the restrictions is that for 6 months she can't drive with more than one passenger in the car (family members do not count, so she could drive with her cousin and a friend.....not that she will have that permission for awhile).

By Janet on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 12:56 pm:

Our school offers it (no, REQUIRES it) and my dd got her license in March. A lot of the actual driving instruction lies with the parents, though. The kids have class time and drive for a few minutes 3x a week, which is no way enough. Illinois currently requires 25 hours of driving with an adult during the permit time (they can't get permits until they're 15--I remember it as 14 in Kansas, when I was a teenager), but it's planning to go up to 50 soon (not a bad idea, really). We also have the restriction of no more than one other passenger in the car under 18 for the first 6 months (unlimited number of siblings, though...go figure), and absolutely NO CELL PHONE TALKING!!!!!!! Even though my dd has been driving alone to and from school, it's going to take a lot more experience before I let her loose in the city (we're rural, so it's not so nerve-wracking at the moment). Nothing will give you grey hairs faster, let me tell you!

By Missbookworm on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 02:26 pm:

I don't know if our schools have it still as here it's 15 for a learners. I do know that you have to write a test to get a learners then take 4 hours of qualified instruction with a trained professional driving instructor THEN you take the driving test and once you pass that you're on a probationary license for a year or two and there are restrictions. I don't recall what they all are. Then after your probationary period if you have no accidents or anything you "graduate" to a regular license. If you do then they can extend your probationary period or even take away your license.

By Mazoku85 on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 05:25 pm:

I graduated from high school 3 years ago and my high school provided drivers education, but you had to have your learners permit and $50.

By Conni on Friday, April 28, 2006 - 07:40 pm:

I am glad I started looking into this now. I figured out today that they do offer drivers ed at the high school in the summer. phew! It's $187 and you do have to have you learners permit beforehand. Looks like we get to study the book for the next 2 mos. DS turns 14 on June 21, then will hopefully pass the written test that week and can start driver ed June 26 (which is the first day of the second session they offer). LOL That will be close! He'd better pass the written or he cant take the D.Ed. course this summer.

I loved drivers ed in high school!! So much fun.

By Cocoabutter on Friday, April 28, 2006 - 07:59 pm:

Our school has it, but in order to be able to provide it without actually losing money (all schools in Michigan are having major cash issues) they have to charge $300, which is comparable with what a driving school charges.