Minnesota Teen Education (Under 18)

At Alpha Driving School, we use the nationally acclaimed "Drive Right" program which is designed to help beginning drivers develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to become safe, low-risk, responsible drivers.  "Drive Right" also teaches students how to use the "Smith" system and the "Zone Control" system combined with the "Identify, Predict, Decide, and Execute" (IPDE) process to develop necessary defensive driving skills.

The "Drive Right" program is used along with other pertinent resources and study aides to compliment the curriculum making it the best offered in the Duluth, St. Louis County area.

Teen Education Curriculum

To help students become safe, responsible defensive drivers, we include the following information and skills in our program:

• Responsibility of having a driver's license
• Information about the Highway Transportation System
• Minnesota Rules of the Road.  Signs, signals and roadway markings
• Basic vehicle control - automatic and manual transmissions
• Importance of developing good seeing habits
• Natural laws and car control
• Sharing the road with others; bikes, trucks, pedestrians, carriages, tractors, motorcycles, etc.
• Performing basic vehicle maneuvers such as steering, changing lanes, turning, parallel parking, 90-degree backing, negotiating intersections, and judging gaps.
• Driving in urban and rural areas
• Driving on expressways
• Learning how to appropriately handle emergencies
• Effectively dealing with emotion and road rage
• The use of alcohol, drugs, peer pressure, and other risk factors
• Dealing with adverse weather conditions
• Buying, owning, and maintaining a vehicle
• Insuring a vehicle and environmental concerns

Minnesota Teen Education Requirements:  

Classroom:  Anyone under 18 years of age must complete 30 hours of classroom instruction.  Once the classroom instruction is completed the student will be issued a blue card by the school that will be teaching the Behind the Wheel.

If the student is 15 years of age or older, he/she may go to any Department of Motor Vehicle Office in the State of Minnesota and take the Permit Test.  At Alpha Driving School the classes are scheduled to start on a specific day and run consecutively Monday through Friday for a period of 3 weeks.  Each class is held two hours a day.

Recommendation:  We encourage each student to register for a specific class and plan on completing the entire three weeks with the same class.

Reason:  According to Minnesota law a student is required to complete 30 hours of classroom instruction.  It is not required to be in any order.  Most driving schools in our area have an open enrollment which means that the student can start class at any time.  For example a student can start on the 10th day of an existing class and at the time the next class begins over again, the student completes the first nine days.  With this process the student can come to class whenever he/she wants. 

We at Alpha Driving School have a specific start and end date to each classroom session.  We believe that the learning process is progressive and that each day’s information builds on the previous day.  A student starts in a school system on a specific day in September and completes sometime in June.  It wouldn’t make any sense if all students were allowed to start whenever they wanted, attend which ever days or months they chose and the following years make up the days or months they missed.

At Alpha Driving School we follow a specific curriculum that supports a learning environment.  We start out with the basics and each day we build on the previous information learned.  If a student started class on the last week of our three week session he/she would be totally confused in relation to the driving concepts and terms previously taught.  However, in the event that a student has to miss a couple of days, it is possible for him/her to make up those days at a different session.  It is not the absence that is as important as the sequence of learning.  

Behind the Wheel:  Once the student has completed the 30 hours and is 15 years of age or older (but under 18 years of age), the student is eligible to take the permit test at any DMV location in the State of Minnesota.  After the student has received his/her permit, they need to keep their permit until he/she is at least 16 years of age before being eligible to take the road test.  If he/she is already 16 years of age or older, the permit must be retained for a period of at least 6 months.  During the time the student has the permit, he/she is required to complete 30 hours of driving with a parent or designated adult.  Ten of the 30 hours need to be completed at night.  It is also during this time that the student is required to complete six hours of behind the wheel training with a licensed instructor.

Recommendation:  Once the student has his/her permit, the parent contacts the driving school to set up an appointment for the first lesson.  We prefer to have one hour lessons or one and one-half hour lessons to spread the lessons out over a period of time.  Minnesota law allows a driving lesson to be two hours long.  Most driving schools in our area choose to do three two hour lessons.  We choose to do shorter lessons.

Reason:  It has been proven that one hour lessons are much more productive than two hour lessons.  After an hour the student becomes tired and may make more driving errors leading to frustration and an unpleasant experience.  For the individual who lives farther out of the city, a lesson may take 1-1/2 hours to get a broader driving experience.  Since you know your son/daughter’s ability more than anyone else, you can make the decision as to how long each lesson should last.  

At the end of each driving lesson, the student receives an evaluation and specific skills to practice.  Also at the end of each lesson the next lesson can be scheduled; usually allowing sufficient time for the student to practice the specific skills learned.

The contract you sign with Alpha driving School will expire one year from the date it is signed.