Taking Traffic School Online - Need Information

[grasshopper]

We have an established Traffic School (over 10 years in same location) in Southern California (Los Angeles) and we want to offer online (internet) Traffic School services also.

However finding information about how the sight, the online testing, etc..has to be designed, guidelines for it, etc..are very hard to find. I've called the DMV and they know nothing. Searching on the net has yielded little in the way of specific information.

I would appreciate anything that could lead me in the right direction in terms of research.

[vangogh]

Are you sure there are specific guidelines you need to follow? I would think if you found something suggesting there were guidelines, the guidelines or a link to the guidelines would have been in the same place.

[grasshopper]

There would logically be a set of rules governing online traffic schools, from their relationship to the DMV to the content and possible certification of online schools, etc.

Just very difficult to find these rules or indeed any mention of how this is done.

[lucas.bowser]

It's not really that hard. I found the following information pretty quickly using the search box on the DMV website. But if you are just contacting your local DMV for these questions, they will never be able to tell you the answer. It's run by a specific division within the DMV.

Traffic School Requirements (http://dmv.ca.gov/vehindustry/ol/tvschowner.htm)

Traffic School Handbook (http://dmv.ca.gov/vehindustry/ol/ol_handbooks/ol1000.pdf)

Additionally, here is the contact information for the DMV group that handles the licensing of training courses.

Department of Motor Vehicles
Occupational Licensing Compliance Programs
P.O. Box 932342, MS L224
Sacramento, CA 94232-3420
Unit Telephone Number: (916) 229–3154

[grasshopper]

Thanks for the links. However I went through them once and also a ton of other documents found on the DMV site and I don't see any reference to how the online test has to be designed, how long it should take, what it should contain, site guidelines, etc. This information really just does not seem to exist. It's puzzling.

We already have a working Traffic Violator School...we just want to take it Online but cannot find guidelines for online testing anywhere.

[lucas.bowser]

http://apps.dmv.ca.gov/forms/ol/ol613.pdf

There may not be a step by step guide. From what I have read, the process is very similar to the traditional classroom setting certification process, it's just a little more expensive to certify your instruction course. The URL above has a section that covers designing traffic school courses. There is a guideline that should roughly match your current class syllabus. The information you are concerned with, as far as course design goes, is in the column that says "other modalities". Here it should a rough %/number of written words breakdown by topic. Apparently, the State of California considers 42,500 words of text = 340 minutes of classroom instruction.

There does not appear to be any written standards readily available, as you say, about look/feel/etc... But then again, I don't think they provide that for a traditional setting either. I think the people at the Unit Telephone Number above should be able to tell you where to find such standards, if they exist. They are the people that will be evaluating the course against any standards. If they can't tell you where to find them, then they probably don't exist.

[grasshopper]

I appreciate your assistance. This one is a real puzzle but a puzzle that will be solved soon.

[Haup9]

Grasshopper - I had thought of starting a driving school in Wisconsin (I have 7 kids that need to go through it) but I haven't been able to find any information either. Do you have any sites that you frequent that might give me some information on this?