Bill Description: House Bill 534 would allow most parents and legal guardians to provide driver training for their children in lieu of formal driver’s training.
NOTE: Historically, parents have been the primary providers of driver training to the next generation, but the trend in recent decades has been to transfer this responsibility to schools and other service providers. In time, this led to parents being prohibited from providing driver training to their children. There has been an ongoing effort in Idaho to restore the right of parents to teach their children to drive, including House Bill 639 (2002), House Bill 683 (2002), House Bill 86 (2023), and House Bill 133 (2023), which passed but was ultimately vetoed by the Governor. House Bill 531 (2024), which did become law, created a small carve-out that allows parents to act as their children’s primary driving instructors ONLY if they live in a rural school district.
Rating: +1
Does it violate the spirit or the letter of either the U.S. Constitution or the Idaho Constitution? Examples include restrictions on speech, public assembly, the press, privacy, private property, or firearms. Conversely, does it restore or uphold the protections guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution or the Idaho Constitution?
House Bill 534 would amend Section 49-307, Idaho Code, to strike the current limitation on a parent or legal guardian providing “the in-car observation and behind-the-wheel instruction components of a driver’s training course” only if “the parent or legal guardian and the student live in a rural school district as described in section 33-319, Idaho Code, or in a school district that does not offer a driver’s training course.”
Parents providing driving instruction would still be subject to several requirements, such as possessing “a valid Idaho driver’s license that permits unaccompanied driving” and not having “had a license suspended, revoked, or canceled and has not been disqualified from holding an Idaho driver’s license for the previous two (2) years.”
House Bill 534 would take important steps to restore parents’ rights to teach their children how to drive.
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