A Department of Licensing presenter told a legislative committee that the state must expand the quality and availability of driver education before widening mandatory pre-licensure requirements for older novice drivers.

The presenter said the department’s plan prioritizes improving access for people under 18, strengthening the instructor workforce and creating scholarships or grants to serve driver-education “deserts” and underserved communities.

The plan, the presenter said, uses a five-phase approach that begins with stabilizing current programs and industry partnerships, expands capacity and access, and only then increases the age range covered by any driver-education mandate. “If we can make it available, if we can make it quality, if we can get, folks taking driver's ed under age 18 when they still have also have the benefit of the graduated driver licensing program, that's our first goal,” the presenter said.

Nut graf: The presenter told lawmakers that expanding instructor capacity and funding is a prerequisite to requiring more novice drivers to complete formal driver education. Lawmakers pressed for specifics about timelines, costs and whether public schools would be used; the presenter recommended targeted appropriations to start pilots and remove barriers to expanding programs.

Key elements of the plan described to the committee include three stated priorities: support the existing instructor workforce through improved training and certification pathways; expand access and affordability via scholarships, awareness campaigns and diverse delivery methods; and foster diversity among instructors so schools better reflect and serve their communities.

To increase instructor supply the presenter recommended new training pipelines, including a department-run pilot that would deliver online, instructor-led, self-paced theory training for both learner drivers and their family coaches. The presenter said the pilot includes performance dashboards so students, coaches and educators can monitor progress and that a 10-week synchronous/asynchronous training model is being tested to shorten the time to certification.

The presenter told lawmakers that the statutory instructor requirement remains a minimum of 100 hours of combined theory and practicum training, but that the pilot and community-college partnerships could accelerate certification and expand capacity.

The presentation also highlighted a capacity risk in existing higher-education instructor pipelines. “Western Oregon University is currently the number 1 way to become a certified instructor,” the presenter said, and added that the school has notified Washington officials it will limit enrollment “to no more than 2 a class” and may stop admitting Washington residents because of out-of-state funding constraints.

On cost and scale, the presenter said the current average price of driver education in Washington is about $625 per student and noted: “for about every $1,000,000 that's allocated to driver education, that would allow the department to potentially fund 1600 students full cost of driver education.” The presenter said the online pilot could deliver roughly three times as many students at about one-third the per-student cost.

The presenter described phased age expansion tied to industry growth targets: roughly a 40% industry capacity expansion would support expanding requirements into an 18–21 age range, with a subsequent 60% expansion needed to include older cohorts (up to 24). Timelines for individual efforts were presented as generally short-term, with many efforts expected to take six months to a year to reach completion.

On the role of public schools, the presenter said the Department of Licensing is working with the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) and that the department will pilot training to help public-school teachers become certified instructors. The presenter emphasized the plan does not aim to replace private driver-training schools, but to fill geographic and socioeconomic gaps where private capacity is absent.

Finally, the presenter urged the committee to consider appropriations to support pilot programs, micro-grants to public schools and scholarships targeted to highest-need communities. “The most important thing I can do is recommend providing appropriations,” the presenter said, calling out the need for funding to develop instructor training, expand high-school programs and support driver-education deserts.

The committee followed with questions about phased ages, whether penalties for young drivers would differ from older drivers, and requests for a short report on near-term legislative steps that could be taken to begin implementation this year. The presenter recommended appropriations as the most immediate lever the legislature could provide.

Ending: Lawmakers asked the department to return with more detailed legislative options and potential appropriation amounts; the department said it would provide pilots and additional information that could inform funding decisions.