The Minnesota Driver and Traffic Safety Education Association is the pro-fessional organization of driver educators in Minnesota. Its purpose is to teach young people to drive safely and defen-sively. Each year it offers regional work-shops and a spring conference. Members represent both public and commercial schools.

MDTSEA Legisla-tive Agenda

MDTSEA is asking the legislature to have the Department of Public Safety ex-amine the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) Na-tional Standards for Driver Education.

A task force will examine each stan-dard and decide how Minnesota should meet the standard or not meet it.

NHTSA published the standards in 2009. DPS has not held a public meeting to discuss them in the past three or more years.

The following is an outline of the bill.

Novice Driver EducationImprovement Task Force

The commissioner shall establish a Novice Driver Education Improvement Task Force to ensure driver education programs in Minnesota meet the Novice Teen Driver Education and Training Administrative Standards published by the United States Department of Trans-portation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The task force shall consist of repre-sentatives from groups such as the Minne-sota Association of Student Councils, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Min-nesotans for Safe Driving, the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association, the Minne-sota Sheriffs' Association, the American Automobile Association, the Minnesota Safety Council, Minnesota PTA, and the Minnesota Driver and Traffic Safety Edu-cation Association.

A novice driver education improve-ment account is to be established. This account shall be used to fund the task force's activities, including any necessary rule making or grants for driver educa-tion curriculum improvement.

The task force shall report on its ac-tivities to the House and Senate commit-tees having jurisdiction over transporta-tion policy and finance each year on or before January 15.

Also included in this bill is language to permit concurrent teaching in driver education as an option.

We believe this is the only standard item that will require legislative action. Minnesota is the only state that does not allow this “best practice” activity. Many states require this.

Concurrent education is teaching the knowledge material overlapping with the skills portion. In home ec., shop, or chemistry classes teachers would not teach classroom for one term and then go to the lab in a different term. The class-room learning would be interspaced with lab experiences. This is also the best practice in teaching driver education.

The bills are Senate File 368 and House File 646.

The following is a very brief outline of the NHTSA National Standards. The standards listed are where MDTSEA be-lieves that Minnesota does not meet or ex-ceed the standard. These are not part of our bill but what the task force would be asked to evaluate.

1.1.1 informed by an advisory board of stakeholders

1.1.4 all programs use a curriculum with written goals and objectives.

1.1.5 have a process to ensure that cur-riculum materials and procedures are current

1.1.9 programs use multicultural edu-cation principles and are free of bias

1.1.11 monitoring, evaluation, and au-diting procedures to ensure standards are met

1.1.13 criteria to assess and approve pro-grams, and provide remediation op-portunities.

1.1.15 require ongoing professional de-velopment for instructors

1.1.16 periodic evaluations of programs be completed and available to the public

1.1.21 use a general standard for online education such as NACOL

1.1.22 use concurrent and integrated classroom and in-car instruction for maximum transfer of skills

2.1.1 meet or exceed current nationally accepted content standards and benchmarks

2.1.4 require end-of-course knowledge and skill assessment examination

based on the stated goals and objec-tives

2.1.5 conduct post-course evaluations by the students and/or parent for im-proving the program

2.1.6 minimum of 45 hours of class-room/theory

2.1.6 minimum of 10 hours of behind the wheel instruction

2.1.6 ten hours in-car observation2.1.6 second stage education minimum

of 10 hours2.1.6 in-car instruction can be enhanced

with simulation or driving range in-struction

2.1.7 require distributive learning3.1.2 instructors complete standardized

instructor training ... no less than 120 hours

3.1.3 instructors trained in accepted best practices using various delivery modalities

3.1.5 annual continuing education and professional development for instruc-tors

4.1.1 require the parents to attend a par-ent seminar

4.1.2 require a parent to complete a de-briefing with instructor

5.1.3 provide information to judges, courts, and law enforcement enforc-ing GDL laws

5.1.5 parents to submit documentation that certifies completion of required supervised hours

5.1.6 state licensing tests are empiri-cally based and reflect standards-based driver education

The working group that created the standards included the following names.

Bud Chauncy, Owner, First Class Driving School, Driving School Association of the Americas

Troy Costales, Governor’s Representative and Di-rector, Oregon DOT, Traffic Safety Division

Barbara Harsha, Executive Director, Governor’s Highway Safety Association (GHSA)

John Harvey, Program Manager, Driver Education, Oregon DOT, Driver Education and Training Administrators (DETA)

David Huff, Director, Montana Office of Public Instruction, Traffic Education Program; Chair-man DETA

John Kennedy, Group Vice President, National Safety Council

Kevin Lewis, American Association of Motor Ve-hicle Administrators (AAMVA)

Dan Mayhew, Traffic Injury Research FoundationJim Nichols, Highway Safety ResearcherDebbie Prudhomme, Training Wheels Driver Ed,

Maple Grove, MN; Central Vice Pres., DSAAKevin Quinlan– National Transportation Safety

Board (NTSB)Marshal Rafael – NTSBAllen Robinson – Chief Executive Officer, Ameri-

can Driver and Traffic Safety Educator Asso-ciation (ADTSEA)

John Svensson, Training & Research Institute of Advanced Driver Development (TRIADD); President, DSAA

William Van Tassel, Manager of Driver Training Operations, AAA