Choosing an online Parent-Taught Driver Education course for your teen can be a little confusing, but picking a high-quality program that’s engaging and simple to use is critical for ensuring your child gets the most comprehensive and meaningful driver education. Online driver education courses typically cost around $99, with a few charging a bit more and a few charging a bit less.
The National Driver Training Institute is one of several Texas-approved providers for Parent-Taught Driver Education. The brainchild of Wayne Tully, a highly esteemed traffic safety expert, and Driver Education Training Instructor, this non-profit organization has been in business since 1998, making it one of the more established online driver’s ed providers.
About National Driver Training
Headquartered in Austin, Texas, the National Driver Training can be considered as one of the leading driver education providers in the state. They not only help in educating our future drivers. They also guide their students from start to end, ensuring that every teen driver who takes classes from them is properly trained in everything they need to know to be a safe driver.
It is one of the first state-approved online programs in Texas. They have been a steady force in the industry since it was established in 1998. Since then, they have dedicated their services to making the American road a safer place for all of us.
This driver training school is nationally-recognized for the seriousness with which they take driver safety. Legislators come to them to request their input on different driving laws that are under consideration. With that, they have played a decisive role in the laws governing the training and licensing of new drivers in 28 states.
It is not uncommon for their members to be invited to speak at different motor vehicle safety conferences to provide articles for national publications. As you can see, they have been an active player in supplying data for traffic safety studies.
National Driver Training takes pride in its award-winning curriculum which covers live lectures, video presentations, online training, test-taking, and behind-the-wheel training.
They have an in-car state testing center located at their headquarters in Lakeway, Texas and their Colorado facility in Colorado Springs.
Features of National Driver Training Institute’s Course
The price of National Driver Training Institute’s Texas Driver Education course is $79.00, which gets you access to the online program, 7 hours of video content, 50 hours’ worth of behind-the-wheel lesson plans, the Texas 6-hour Permit Packet, and Form DE-964, which is the Certificate of Completion that your child will need in order to obtain a learner’s permit. The course also provides unlimited permit practice tests to help your child prepare for the written exam. For an extra $10, your child can take the permit exam online, saving you $5 and a lot of time waiting in line at the DPS.
The course itself is easy to follow and includes over a hundred audio and video clips. The curriculum has seven levels, and each lesson begins with a clearly-stated objective and ends with an exam that can be taken as many times as necessary to pass. The course includes practical hands-on activities and video presentations that supplement the topics in each level. You can also opt for the interactive CD Rom or textbook version of the course instead of the online version.
The parent manual includes behind-the-wheel lessons with tips for what to emphasize and what to watch out for, as well as driving logs to keep track of in-car training hours and evaluation sheets to help you assess your child’s performance in an objective way.
The online course is available to take on your Mac or PC desktop or laptop, your iPhone or iPad, and your Android devices.
Customer support is available Monday through Saturday from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., and they’re trained to answer any questions about the course, the materials, and the process for obtaining a driver’s license.
How it Works
The very first thing you’ll need to do is order your Parent-Taught Driver Education packet from the State of Texas by submitting Form DL-92 and a $20 fee. Before you submit the form, read the requirements carefully to ensure you and your teen qualify for the Parent-Taught Driver Education program.
Only when you receive the packet, which can take between three and four weeks, can your child begin taking the course. If Junior starts the course before you have the packet in hand, he’ll have to start over from the beginning when the packet arrives.
Once the first six hours of online instruction are complete, your child can take the written test in person or online to obtain a learner’s permit, and that’s when you’ll start the behind-the-wheel training, which is done in tandem with the remaining 26 hours of online instruction.
The course ends with a final exam that must be passed with a score of at least 70 percent in order to qualify for the Completion Certificate, which is required for obtaining a driver’s license. Your child will have three attempts to pass the exam. Once you have the Completion Certificate in hand – usually within five days of passing the final exam – you’ll take it to the DPS, where your child will take the driving test and (hopefully!) walk out with a driver’s license.
What Others Say About This Program
National Driver Training Institute isn’t accredited by the Better Business Bureau, which doesn’t really mean much, other than that they haven’t paid the BBB for that privilege. The two five-star reviews on Yelp are glowing, with one parent gushing, “This course is awesome!” and raving about how much her daughters loved it and how great the customer service is.
National Driver Training Institute’s website contains 47 pages of testimonials, each of which contains 50 reviews whose scores add up to an overall rating of 4.79 out of 5 stars.
Our Rating for National Driver Training Institute
National Driver Training Institute is a well established, non-profit organization that started offering online driver’s ed in 1998.
The course is just $79, which is very reasonable, and it’s available to take on all mobile devices. The comprehensive course includes video and audio clips and hands-on assignments that appeal to all types of learners. The materials for the parent include lesson plans, tips, and driving logs. Customer support is available 11 hours a day, Monday through Saturday. The only thing that’s missing is a money-back guarantee, but if the rave reviews of past students and parents are any indication, you probably won’t regret purchasing this online driver’s ed course, which we’re awarding four out of five stars.