Texas students taking driving tests online

While they can’t take the car out on the Internet, some students in Texas will be able to take their driver’s education courses online.

The Texas Virtual School (TVS) at Region 4 Education Service Center (Region 4) has selected DriversEd.com as the exclusive provider of their online driver education course. The DriversEd.com course allows teens seeking their first license to receive a Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) approved certificate-of-completion of driver education.

Region 4 serves a seven county area consisting of 143 high schools that make up the largest student population in Texas.

"The DriversEd.com course puts us on the forefront of driver education and supports our goal to create solutions that become the worldwide standard for educational excellence," says Linda Behling Gillis, Educational Specialist-TVS. "Our goal is to establish statewide initiatives for school improvement that will revolutionize education and advance future generations, DriversEd.com is helping us achieve that."

All new Texas drivers under the age of 18 are required to take driver education. The Texas Parent-Taught Driver Education (PTDE) program became law in 1997 as an alternative to driver education in a conventional school setting. The PTDE program allows teens between 14 and 17 years old to take their driver education course online with a DPS-approved provider and it allows parents to provide the behind-the-wheel training.

The DriversEd.com curriculum provides the in-class theoretical portion of driver education all online. Interactive video and animations about real on-the-road scenarios take into account how teens learn. New drivers can prepare for the written test by taking up to 50 DPS practice tests online (offered in English and Spanish) and can re-take the final test until they pass.

"Teens can take the DriversEd.com course on their own computer at their own pace," says DriversEd.com co-founder Gary Tsifrin. "It's comprehensive and designed to help students become safe, confident, and defensive drivers."

DriversEd.com was the first to bring the driver education course online. Since 2003, the course has had over 750,000 graduates. In addition to Texas, the DiversEd.com driver ed course is available to first time drivers in California, Nevada, Colorado, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Georgia and Florida.