First, you need to make sure you have an eligible parent instructor to do parent taught drivers ed.
If you do not have an eligible instructor, any work you do under the parent taught program is considered invalid. That's the state requirement. Make sure to read the requirements below before requesting a refund and purchasing your Parent Taught Drivers Ed course or it's gonna get rough for you later. Trust us on this. If you're good to go, all you'll need to do is request a refund as long as you're within policy, and purchase your Parent Taught Drivers Ed course here! Then, order the parent taught drivers ed packet from the state in order to officially get started with the course.
Here are the state's eligibility requirements to be a parent instructor:
- You are the student’s parent, step-parent, grandparent, step-grandparent, foster parent, legal guardian, or an individual designated by your parent/legal guardian/judge.
- If you use a designated individual as your instructor, there are a few extra requirements for them. They also need to be at least 25 years old; they cannot charge a fee for being your instructor; they need at least 7 years of driving experience, and they must meet the rest of the requirements below.
- You will also need to print out the Parent Taught Driver Education Instructor Designation Form, complete it, and bring with you to the DPS when getting your permit.
- You must have a valid Texas driver license for the preceding three years.*
- You don't have a conviction or probated sentence of driving while intoxicated in the past 7 years.
- You don’t have a conviction or probated sentence of criminally negligent homicide.
- You haven’t had your driving privileges suspended, revoked, or forfeited for traffic-related violations in the past three years.
- You don’t have six or more points assigned to your driver license.
*If the parent instructor has had a Texas license for less than the preceding three years, they are responsible for ordering a certified driver record from the state or country where they last had a license. The driver record should go back at least three years and the DPS will need to see the record when the student gets their permit. We recommend doing a quick Google search to find out from which government entity you order your driver record. Example: “Name of previous state or country where you last had a license + driver record.”
