{"id":197922,"date":"2025-10-04T00:26:50","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T05:26:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=197922"},"modified":"2025-10-04T00:26:52","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T05:26:52","slug":"ohios-drivers-education-law-has-changed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2025\/10\/04\/ohios-drivers-education-law-has-changed\/","title":{"rendered":"Ohio’s driver’s education law has changed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Megan Henry\/Ohio Capital Journal<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new law took effect in Ohio this week that requires everyone under 21 to complete driver\u2019s education training before getting their license. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ohio\u2019s law previously only required those age 17 and younger to go through driver\u2019s training \u2014 meaning those 18 and older were previously able to skip the training and simply apply for a driver\u2019s license. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the new law, Ohio drivers younger than 21 will be required to complete driver\u2019s education training in order to get a driver\u2019s license, which includes 24 hours of education in the classroom and eight hours with an instructor on the road. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe know that a driver is safer if they\u2019ve had driver\u2019s training,\u201d Governor Mike DeWine said during a press conference Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This new law came out of Ohio\u2019s two-year state operating budget DeWine signed into law in July. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat is happening is a number of teenagers didn\u2019t ever get driver\u2019s training,\u201d DeWine said. \u201cWe know inexperience is really the number one killer, the number one cause of crashes.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearly 60 percent of at-fault teen drivers were 18 to 19 years old at the time of fatal traffic crashes in 2024, according to the\u00a0Ohio\u2019s Teen Crash Dashboard. Nearly 100 teen-related fatal crashes were reported in 2024 and the teen driver was at fault in 67 of those crashes. 70 percent of those were the fault of the teen driver, according to the state data.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

DeWine\u2019s daughter Becky died in a car crash in 1993 when she was 22. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ohio Department of Public Safety Director Andy Wilson, a former prosecutor, said he has been called to the scene of many fatal car crashes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve stood over bodies of young drivers at crashes, and there\u2019s nothing that fills the loss \u2026 in someone\u2019s life who\u2019s lost someone dramatically and unexpectedly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe believe that this change \u2026 will, in fact, save a lot of lives,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is expected to affect about 36,000 people in Ohio every year, according to Judy Converse, spokesperson for the Ohio Traffic Safety Office. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wilson said a teenager\u2019s crash risk drops when they get the right training and practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJust because you can pass the driver\u2019s desk when you\u2019re 18 doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019re a good driver,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cThat test is kind of a bare minimum threshold to get you out on the road.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most driver\u2019s schools charge about $100 for 24 hours of classroom instruction and then it\u2019s another $300-400 for the eight hours behind the wheel with an instructor, according to Converse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe know, without a doubt, that a barrier to driver\u2019s education is the cost,\u201d Wilson said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

DeWine and Wilson both support putting driver\u2019s education back in schools as a non-mandatory elective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe think that driver\u2019s ed in school makes sense,\u201d DeWine said. \u201cIt is more convenient. We think that\u2019s very, very important.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some Ohio schools have driver\u2019s education courses, but many schools dropped those classes in the 1990s. Capacity is an issue when it comes to having enough driver\u2019s education courses, Wilson said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you try to get your kid in driver\u2019s ed, you have to wait a little while,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cAn easy answer is to put driver\u2019s ed back in the schools where we\u2019re making you take an elective instead of study hall.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Megan Henry\/Ohio Capital Journal A new law took effect in Ohio this week that requires everyone under 21 to complete driver\u2019s education training before getting their license.  Ohio\u2019s law previously only required those age 17 and younger to go through driver\u2019s training \u2014 meaning those 18 and older were previously able to skip the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-197922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-14 23:16:15","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197922"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":197971,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197922\/revisions\/197971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}