Georgia’s driver’s education program uses outdated curriculum standards, with three of the four approved classroom curricula more than 15 years old, which also happens to be the age when a person is old enough to get a learner’s permit in Georgia. And while training requirements for new drivers in Georgia are comparable to other states, they are less stringent than recommended standards.
Those are among the findings of a new state audit of the Georgia Department of Driver Services driver’s education program, which also found that the most commonly-used method of driver’s education is also the least effective.
Training requirements
New drivers in Georgia can choose how they want to complete driver’s education.
First, they need a theory component, which can be 30 hours of either classroom or virtual instruction. For the practical component, they need 40 hours of supervised driving with a parent and either six hours of behind-the-wheel training with a certified instructor or – unlike most other states – to complete a structured workbook including activities like parallel parking and driving in traffic under parental supervision.
Georgia’s required 30 classroom hours and six behind-the-wheel training hours match the nationwide median for other states, but fall short of the 45 hours of class time and 10 hours of driving time recommended by the Novice Teen Driver Education and Training Administrative Standards. And Georgia’s 40 hours of supervised driving time is below both the national median and recommended standard of 50 hours.
Courses are also recommended to be limited to 30 students and distributed over a period of a month or longer, with a maximum of two hours of instruction time per day, but Georgia’s statewide regulations establish a maximum class size of 40 students and do not include requirements for spreading out instructional time, with auditors identifying examples of courses lasting eight hours or taking place in the span of a week.
Parents know best?
The auditors found that Georgia’s option to use the parent/teen workbook rather than sign up for an instructor-led behind-the-wheel course has some benefits — the workbook is free, while the course can cost up to $500, and certified instructors tend to be concentrated in metro areas, leaving many rural Georgians without that option. That might explain why 61% of teens who took driver’s ed in the 2023 fiscal year chose that option.
But it’s not clear whether parents are actually taking the time to complete the workbook with their children.
“Because they are only required to sign an affidavit, parents/guardians may not actually complete the guide,” the auditors wrote. “DDS staff indicated that they used to require more documentation but felt that it did not provide additional assurance that the guide would be completed.”
A 2021 study found that drivers who used the parent/teen guide were involved in more crashes and had more convictions compared to drivers who took the behind-the-wheel training with a certified instructor. Teens who took either an in-person or virtual course for the first part of their training were more than 17% less likely to end up with a conviction if they studied with a professional than with mom or dad.
The researchers noted that the most effective method of instruction combined the in-person classroom training with a professional instructor providing the behind-the-wheel component.
Old standards
The auditors found that three of the four approved classroom curricula are more than 15 years old, with the other one last updated in 2020. Of the approved virtual curricula, three are five years old or younger, five are between six and 10 years and four are between 11 and 15 years.
The auditors said they found weaknesses in the process for approving and monitoring curricula, and while DDS’s content standards partially cover the content included in recommended standards, some topics are not required, and outdated curricula mean they do not reflect modern changes in the driving environment, the report says.
“For example, the standards do not include information regarding vehicle safety technology (e.g., vehicle warning systems, vehicle assistance systems),” the auditors wrote.
The auditors found that DDS standards often include concepts outlined in the recommended standards, but some recommended concepts are not covered, including topics like parking maneuvers, traffic stops, advanced technological safety systems, or emergency responses such as crash site responsibilities.
DDS response
The Department of Driver’s Services disagreed with some of the auditors’ findings. In a response included with the audit report, they emphasized that no state meets all standards and said that it regularly communicates with other states as well as exchanges feedback through the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators to make sure Georgia’s program matches up with other states.
The department also said that its requirements and timeframes are decided by state law and would require legislative action to change.
Regarding the curricula standards, the department said its standards line up with the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, which it considers to be the “unbiased, leading authority” on driver safety.
This story was provided by WABE content partner the Georgia Recorder.
