What is Classroom Driver's Education

Section Navigation
Skip Section Navigation

What is Classroom Driver's Education?

Prince William County Public Schools (PWCS) provides driver education instruction to meet the Virginia requirements for students to receive their driver's licenses. In 10th grade health and physical education (HPE II), each high school provides a minimum of 30 hours of classroom driver education instruction.

 

The Code of Virginia (§22.1-205) requires students and their parent/guardian living in Planning District 8 - which includes the counties of Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, and Prince William, and the cities of Alexandria, Fairfax, Falls Church, Manassas, and Manassas Park - to participate in an in-person 90-minute parent/teen presentation. PWCS students and a parent/guardian must attend a meeting together as part of their classroom driver education course.

For more information on safe driving, please see Partners for Safe Teen Driving, A Community Health Initiative.

 Important!

Both student and parent/guardian must attend a 90-minute teen driving safety presentation as part of the in-classroom portion of the driver education curriculum. This meeting is only for PWCS students currently enrolled in HPE II or PWCS students who have completed HPE II. HPE I students are not eligible to attend this meeting. This program requirement must be met before a student receives a Driver Education Certificate of Completion Card (DEC-District 8 card).

 

Please note: The 90-minute parent/guardian and teen driver education meetings are held in-person. Meetings may have limited capacity. Students and parent/guardian should attend a meeting at their school.

 

Please contact your student's HPE II teacher for additional information on upcoming meeting dates and information for the 2023-24 school year.

 

Driver Education DEC-District 8 Completion Cards 

Please contact your student's school to obtain the student DEC-8 Completion Card 

How Do I Get My DEC-8 Card?

The following prerequisites must be met in order to obtain a DEC-8 Classroom Completion Card:

  1. Have a minimum of 36 seat hours of classroom instruction
  2. Attend a 90-Minute Parent/Teen Meeting (Click HERE links to access all county meetings) 
  3. Pass classroom drivers education with a 60% or better. 
    1. Classroom drivers education grades are pulled from the overall HPE II grade.
    2. HPE II grades in Student/Parent Vue are not reflective of the Drivers Education grade. 
    3. Students may pass HPE II but fail Drivers Education (or vise versa) 

What if I don't pass Drivers Education?

There are multiple reasons student may not pass drivers education.  Please look at the following options to know what to do.

 

Parent/Student did not attend a 90-Minute meeting:

  • Student earned a 60% or better
  • Parent/Student must attend a meeting
  • Click HERE for meeting informationfor meeting information
  • When the meeting has been attended please find the information on requesting a DEC-8 form

 

Student did not earn a 60% or better in the course:

  • Student must retake classroom drivers education
    • Student may take drivers education only in summer school (see counselor for more information)
    • Student may take VADETS online classroom drivers education (see alpha administrator for information)