How to Pick a Driving School

Learning to drive is an important step to adulthood for young people. The right kind of instruction sets the foundation for a lifetime of good driving habits and can make a significant impact in getting a new driver off to a good start.

Under California law, driving schools consist of 2 parts:

Driver education, which is at least 30 hours of instruction about the rules of the road (often done online these days).
Driver training, which is at least 6 hours of behind-the-wheel lessons with a professional instructor. In addition, teens must have 50 hours of supervised practice with a parent or adult in the car.

AAA Driving School instructor Wendy Takahashi has had her 2 teens go through the program and has another child about to enroll.

Wendy Takahashi is an 11-year instructor at the AAA Driving School. She is also a mother of 2 young adults who’ve been through the program, and she has another child due to enroll soon. She suggests parents ask these 5 questions when looking for a high-quality behind-the-wheel driving school.

1. How much training have the instructors had?

California requires instructors to be certified and licensed, and some schools leave it at that. Good schools take the extra step of training their instructors in person on how to handle various types of students and situations.

“I went through 3 months of training,” says Takahashi. “I shadowed an instructor to learn different techniques before heading out solo with a student.”

2. Does the school use specific routes for behind-the-wheel driving lessons?

Some schools don’t use a set route. Good schools customize routes to teach specific skills.

“Our Lesson 5 is on identifying hazards,” says Takahashi, “so we construct a route and ask students to pick out potential hazards they see, like pedestrians on the sidewalk or cars backing out of driveways.”

3. How will I know how my child is progressing?

Instructor Wendy Takahashi talks with her students’ parents after each lesson to brief them on where the teen driver needs to improve.

Good schools offer regular feedback. “We brief parents after each lesson. We tell them what went well and what didn’t,” says Takahashi. “Communication with parents is important. We tell parents what to work on during the 50 hours of practice driving that each student must complete.”

4. How are instructors supervised?

Good schools equip each car with a camera to record the lessons.

“My supervisor does a random check of the video to make sure my lesson covered everything that it should,” says Takahashi.

5. Are the training cars inspected for safety?

School supervisors inspect cars for damage on a regular basis to ensure they are safe for students to use.

It’s important that the school’s vehicles are safe and in good condition, says Takahashi. At AAA, school supervisors regularly inspect the cars for damage.

When you’re ready to start researching driving schools, start by asking other parents which school they used. New teen drivers are at high risk behind the wheel, and your diligence in locating a high-quality school that meets your family’s needs will pay off.

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7 reasons to choose the AAA Driving School

Longstanding success. AAA has been offering driver education for more than 80 years.
AAA offers both an online driver-education course and behind-the-wheel driver training.
Teens can work at their own pace through the California DMV-approved online driver-education course.
The online curriculum keeps teens engaged with training videos, Crash Cam footage, driving simulations, interactive memory exercises, and quizzes.
California requires 6 hours of in-car lessons. AAA Driving School offers 6 or 10 hours of one-on-one instruction on routes that reinforce the online curriculum. (Additional 1-hour lessons can be added to these two options.)
Upon successful completion of AAA’s online driver education and in-car driver training, teens receive a free 12-month dependent associate AAA membership and may be eligible for a discount on insurance through AAA.
Teens who complete the AAA Driving School are less likely to be involved in a crash. The finding is based on a 6-year study in 2019 of SoCal teens with up to 3 years of driving experience who completed AAA’s online and behind-the-wheel courses and who are insured through AAA.

Enroll in AAA Driving School

To learn more about the AAA Driving School, including current available promotions, visit AAA.com/teendriving.