§ 22.1-205. Driver education programs.
A. The Board of Education shall establish for the public school
system a standardized program of driver education in the safe
operation of motor vehicles. Such program shall consist of
classroom training and behind-the-wheel driver training. However,
any student who participates in such a program of driver
education shall meet the academic requirements established by the
Board, and no student in a course shall be permitted to operate a
motor vehicle without a license or permit to do so issued by the
Department of Motor Vehicles. The program shall include
instruction concerning (i) alcohol and drug abuse, (ii)
aggressive driving, and (iii) motorcycle awareness. Such
instruction shall be developed by the Department in cooperation
with the Virginia Alcohol Safety Action Program and the
Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance
Abuse Services. Such program shall require a minimum number of
miles driven during the behind-the-wheel driver training.
B. The Board shall assist school divisions by preparation,
publication and distribution of competent driver education
instructional materials to ensure a more complete understanding
of the responsibilities and duties of motor vehicle operators.
C. Each school board shall determine whether to offer the program
of driver education in the safe operation of motor vehicles and,
if offered, whether such program shall be an elective or a
required course. Only school divisions complying with the
standardized program and regulations established by the Board of
Education and the provisions of § 46.2-335 shall be entitled to
participate in the distribution of state funds appropriated for
driver education.
D. The actual initial driving instruction shall be conducted,
with motor vehicles equipped as may be required by regulation of
the Board of Education, on private or public property removed
from public highways if practicable; if impracticable, then, at
the request of the school board, the Commonwealth Transportation
Board shall designate a suitable section of road near the school
to be used for such instruction. Such section of road shall be
marked with signs, which the Commonwealth Transportation Board
shall supply, giving notice of its use for driving instruction.
Such signs shall be removed at the close of the instruction
period. No vehicle other than those used for driver training
shall be operated between such signs at a speed in excess of
twenty-five miles per hour. Violation of this limit shall be a
Class 4 misdemeanor.
E. The Board of Education may, in its discretion, promulgate
regulations for the use and certification of paraprofessionals as
teaching assistants in the driver education programs of school
divisions.
F. The Board of Education shall approve correspondence courses
for the classroom training component of driver education. These
correspondence courses shall be consistent in quality with
instructional programs developed by the Board for classroom
training in the public schools. Students completing the
correspondence courses for classroom training, who are eligible
to take behind-the-wheel driver training, may receive
behind-the-wheel driver training (i) from a public school, upon
payment of the required fee, if the school division offers
behind-the-wheel driver training and space is available or (ii)
from a commercial driver training school licensed by the
Department of Motor Vehicles. Nothing herein shall be construed
to require any school division to provide behind-the-wheel driver
training to nonpublic school students.
(Code 1950, § 22-235.1; 1962, c. 482; 1966, c. 208; 1968, c.
433; 1974, c. 154; 1980, c. 559; 1988, c. 105; 1989, c. 392;
1998, c. 96; 1999, c. 928; 2000, cc. 82, 651; 2001, cc. 659,
665.)