As the first priority, the driver education course shall be made available at no cost to all secondary school pupils at or about the time they reach licensing age.
As the second priority, the driver education course shall be made available to all persons who do not attend secondary schools who have reached their sixteenth birthday and are under eighteen years of age. County boards of education may require the persons described in this paragraph who enroll in a public secondary school driver education course to pay tuition not to exceed fifty dollars.
As the third priority, the driver education course shall be made available to all persons who do not attend secondary school who are eighteen years of age or older, but first consideration for persons in this age group shall be given to those who are applying for their first operator's license. County boards of education may require the persons described in this paragraph who enroll in a public secondary school driver education course to pay tuition not to exceed seventy-five dollars.
In those counties where sufficient public secondary school driver education courses are not available to meet all requests for the course, county boards of education shall, as quickly as possible, make sufficient courses available to fill those requests.
(b) The minimum standards shall provide at least that:
(1) All driver education courses offered within the state are taught by instructors certified by the state board as qualified for these purposes; and
(2) Each person enrolled in a driver education course shall receive practice driving and observation in a dual control automobile and instruction in at least the following:
(A) Basic and advanced driving techniques, including techniques for handling emergencies;
(B) Traffic regulations and laws of the road as provided in chapter seventeen-c of this code and other applicable state and local laws and ordinances;
(C) Critical mechanical parts of vehicles requiring preventive maintenance for safety;
(D) The vehicle, highway and community features that aid the driver in avoiding crashes; protect him or her and his or her passengers in crashes; and maximize the salvage of the injured;
(E) Signs, signals, highway markings and highway design features which require understanding for safe operation of motor vehicles;
(F) Differences in characteristics of urban and rural driving, including safe use of modern expressways;
(G) Pedestrian safety; and
(H) Motorcycle safety awareness in a program which shall include, but not be limited to, ensuring that the driver has knowledge and awareness of motorcycles sharing the roads of this state for the safety of motorcyclists.
(c) In addition, in driver education courses, participating students shall be encouraged to acquire first aid skills.
In the case of a pupil who will not reach the age of fifteen years before completion of the driver education course in which enrolled, instruction shall be limited to the classroom. Pupils who are fifteen years of age and older shall receive instruction and practical training in the operation of motor vehicles on the public streets and highways.
Notwithstanding section three-a, article two, chapter seventeen-b of this code, any student who is at least fifteen years of age and is enrolled in a driver education course in accordance with the provisions of this article and the rules that the state board adopts pursuant to section four of this article, may operate a motor vehicle on the roadways of West Virginia while accompanied by a certified driver education teacher.
Each county board of education shall receive from funds specially appropriated for the driver education courses provided in public secondary schools a sum which shall be proportionate to the total amount available for distribution for that purpose to all county boards in the state in the ratio which the number of pupils who are enrolled in driver education courses in public secondary schools in the county bears to the total number of pupils who are enrolled in driver education courses in all public secondary schools within the state, but the payment shall not exceed the sum of thirty-five dollars for each such pupil per school year.
Before any pupil is graduated from a secondary school after the first day of September, one thousand nine hundred seventy-five, he or she shall first be provided an opportunity and encouraged to successfully complete a driver education course approved by the state board in a public, private, parochial or denominational secondary school within the state. If a pupil has successfully completed a similar course in a secondary school of another state and the course is accepted by the state board as adequately meeting and complying with the course standards established by the state board, then the aforementioned requirement shall be deemed fulfilled regarding that pupil.
On or before December thirty-first, two thousand, any secondary school pupil sixteen years of age or older, but under eighteen years of age, who has successfully completed a driver education course approved by the state board in a public, private, parochial or denominational secondary school within the state or a similar course in a secondary school of another state and accepted by the state board as adequately meeting and complying with the course standards established by the state board, shall, upon proper application and successful completion of all examination and driving tests required by law for issuance of an operator's license to a person eighteen years of age or older, be issued an operator's license without any restriction rather than the junior or probationary operator's license provided for in section three, article two, chapter seventeen-b of this code. On or after the first day of January, two thousand one, any secondary school pupil sixteen years of age or older, but under eighteen years of age, who has successfully completed a driver education course approved by the state board in a public, private, parochial or denominational secondary school within the state or a similar course in a secondary school of another state and accepted by the state board as adequately meeting and complying with the course standards established by the state board, shall be exempted from submitting a sworn affidavit certified by the parent, legal guardian, or other responsible adult over the age of twenty-one that the applicant has successfully completed the minimum number of hours of behind-the-wheel training as provided in section three-a, article two, chapter seventeen-b of the code.
A fee of fifty dollars shall be charged by the state superintendent for the issuance of any such license, which may be renewed annually, for a fee of fifty dollars, so long as the licensee complies with the requirements of this article. Sums so received shall be deposited into the state treasury and credited to an account of the department of education for the administration of the provisions of this article.
An application for a license to operate a licensed commercial driver education school shall be made upon an official form prescribed by the state superintendent, and licenses shall be granted only when the state superintendent is satisfied that the school offers a course of driver education which complies with the requirements approved by the state board.
The state superintendent shall periodically cause an inspection to be made of all licensed schools. He shall revoke and require the surrender of the license of any school that fails to achieve and maintain the minimum course standards prescribed therefor or that he finds is not conducting a driver education course that is in conformity with the requirements approved by the state board.
The state superintendent shall maintain, file and make available at his office and at other places he selects lists of all public and nonpublic schools offering approved courses of driver education and all commercial schools holding licenses and those whose licenses have been revoked. The state superintendent shall keep the list current and shall furnish a copy of the list to the commissioner of motor vehicles and to the commissioner of insurance.
Persons operating a licensed school shall issue a certificate upon an official form prescribed by the state superintendent to persons completing its driver education course. A record shall be kept of every certificate so issued.
Tuition of not more than one hundred dollars may be charged by a licensed commercial driver education school for each person enrolled therein.
Note: WV Code updated with legislation passed through the 2012 1st Special Session
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