Do It Yourself No-Cost Driver’s Training for California Homeschoolers: Homeschool Hangout

Today we are talking about how you can conduct your child’s driver’s training in the state of California if you are a private homeschooler for no cost. Yes, you heard me. You can legally conduct your own driver’s training for your child as an independent homeschooler in the state of California. How awesome is that? 

So first up, I am not a lawyer. I do not pretend to be a lawyer. I don’t even play one on television. This is purely what has worked for us and is not constituting any form of legal advice. Once again not a lawyer not giving legal advice.

We all know in public school now that they don’t really offer driver’s training and many don’t even offer driver’s education. As a homeschooler (and just a person who values money) I was very intimidated by the cost of paying for driver’s training. So when I started hearing rumblings by people who’ve been around a little longer than me saying you don’t have to pay for driver’s training. I was like what? So the real question is, how do I save $400 for 6 hours of instruction? To be clear, driver’s training is usually just about 6 hours of behind-the-wheel instruction. I got pointed in a direction by a friend and the research began! 

This is the process that worked for me. I will be very honest, I’ve read a lot of the education codes having to do with homeschooling in California. I didn’t really find anything in the DMV write ups (vs forms) or in the education code regarding this. Basically, I haven’t found a law or law explainer. Mostly, I just found forms. But, I have done this process from the beginning all the way through to a licensed driver with my 17 year old. We are about to begin it again with my 15 year old.

You can use this process to do both driver’s education and driver’s training. We only did driver’s training. Frankly, our time was worth the $10 we spent on a Groupon for a driver’s education class. But as I said, this is a process good for both if you would like.

The big part of this experience is going to be guided by the DMV form DL396. Basically, this goes to the occupational licensing section of the DMV. So let’s take a look at that form real quick.

A Look at the DL396

• The first thing you do is choose your type of school. If you are here, I am assuming you are a Home School or Private Satellite Program.
• Now enter your basic information. This will match the PSA information. A CDS code is only issued to schools with more than 6 students so if you are part of a PSSP, you need to get that from your group admin. For those of us with less than 6 students, we don’t have one. Nor do we have a School ID number. Don’t worry about it, leave them blank.
• You are the requester, not your PSSP if you are in one. This is basically where you want it and who they will follow up with if there are questions. 
• The date of request is the date you are doing this.
• At the bottom of section one you can put the dates you need them. If you want them ASAP you can put today’s date but if you don’t need them until the next semester, put that.
• In Section 2 you just select what applies to you. We are not public or charter schools. So don’t check it;). Then check the next 2 boxes in Section 2. This just says that you are going to teach the actual law and responsibility to your student and keep the records. 
• In Section 3 there are a variety of boxes and you only choose the ones that apply to you. 
• You are not a private secondary school really. A school like Fresno Christian or Memorial would qualify as that. Don’t check those.
• You will need to include a copy of your PSA.
• Decide if you are doing both Driver’s Education and Driver’s Training and mark the appropriate boxes.
• You are not teaching “non-classroom” Driver’s Education. If you hire out Driver’s Education, they will issue the completion certificate. So leave all 3 of those blank.
• Section 4 is just your expected amount of students for the year. That’s it.
• Section 5 is where you list anyone who will be part of the official teaching and mark parent. Because you are a parent, you don’t need to worry about a teaching credential or a background summary.
• Then sign it.

That is it for that form! Next, we move onto DL396A. Another fancy-sounding form but it just requests supplies. You put your school name at the top and select what you need. Remember that you are a homeschool. The majority of items come in private secondary or homeschool. So just make sure you choose the homeschool option. 

You will also need to keep a copy of DL803 in your drawer. Some people say to send in a copy every year, I haven’t found anything official that actually says that. So I just keep it in my file cabinet. It tracks your issuing of the completion certificates. You don’t actually do anything with it but keep it in case there are rogue certificates out there, you can answer for where yours went.

That is basically all there is to it! You need to mail in the completed DL396, DL 396A, and a copy of your PSA. You will get your supplies in the mail and are good to teach! There are more stories and anecdotes in the video but this written article seems to be long enough to bore you. So I leave you to watch the video for all the details of how we personally handle it with our kiddos. Let me know if you have any questions!