SENATE, No. 2132

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

INTRODUCED JUNE 5, 1997

By Senators CIESLA

An Act concerning the licensing of drivers' schools and supplementing P.L.1951, c.216 (C.39:12-1 et seq.).

    Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

    1.    Notwithstanding any law, rule or regulation to the contrary, a person who is employed as a driving instructor in a public or non-public secondary school shall receive hour-for-hour credit from the Division of Motor Vehicles for the person's behind-the-wheel instructional experience towards the fulfillment of any behind-the-wheel hourly instructional requirement necessary to obtain a drivers' school license.

    2.    This act shall take effect immediately and shall apply to instructional experience heretofore or hereafter acquired.

STATEMENT

    This bill requires the Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) in the Department of Transportation to recognize the behind-the-wheel experience of secondary school driving instructors for the purpose of issuing a license to operate a commercial drivers' school. DMV regulations presently require an applicant for a drivers' school license, or an employee of the applicant, to have 500 hours experience providing behind-the-wheel instruction in a commercial driving school. DMV does not recognize the behind-the-wheel instructional experience of secondary school driving instructors as satisfying this requirement. However, the skills needed to provide behind-the-wheel instruction in secondary schools and in commercial schools are quite similar. Accordingly, it is only fair that the behind-the-wheel driving experience of secondary school driving instructors be treated comparably to that of commercial driving school instructors for purposes of obtaining a commercial drivers' school license. This bill shall apply to instructional experience acquired before and after the effective date of this act.

Requires the DMV to credit secondary school driving instructors for their behind-the-wheel instructional experience for purposes of obtaining a drivers' school license.