August 18, 2005

ValleyViewpoints

A lesson in picking a driving school

Editor,
Your paper has been a wealth of information on the scary scene surrounding driving schools. My son recently turned 15 1/2 and I have had the daunting task of picking a school to provide the six hours of behind the wheel instruction. I had thought I found a good school and had paid for it when I read your article about the Almaden school that had been operation without a license for three years!

I called up the DMV and after much work, found out how to figure out if a school is legitimate or not. I am passing on my findings to you so other readers don’t have to go through the scary process alone.

This is the letter I wrote and forwarded to all of my friends. I hope you will find it useful, as the DMV does not make it easy to obtain information that should be straightforward!

I wanted to pass on some advice about finding a driving school for your son or daughter so you don’t have to go through the headache we have gone through. We signed up for a school only to find out that the school did not hold a valid license of operation!

Here is how you can research a school and be sure you are getting a good instructor:

1. Log onto www.dmv.ca.gov.

2. Click on the underlined option that says, “online services” at the top left of the page.

3. Click on “Driving school License Status Information”

4. Click on “start search”

5. Click on “I agree” and “start search”

6. Type in “San Jose” or other city of interest, under city name on bottom half of screen and hit return.

7. Under “select business name,” click on the arrow key to reveal all the schools in San Jose.

You can look at each school and see the status of the schools license, if there are any administrative actions against the school, when the school was founded and how long the owner has held a license.

For example: the first school listed is ABC Driving school. It has an invalid license and was closed 3/21/2005.
By this same method I found out that Oxford Driving School, the one that I had first signed my son up for, was operating on an expired license, and the school was only open for one year. When I found this out, we canceled the session and demanded our money back. So far we have not gotten it.

8. When you have picked a school (and I’d recommend one that has been open at least five years), and scheduled the first driving lesson, ask who is going to be your child’s instructor. Ask them to spell the name for you and ask for his operator’s license. You can then call the Office of Licensing in Sacramento to confirm that your instructor is indeed holding a valid license. The number is (916) 229-3127. You can ask for Tom and he will verify that the instructor is holding a valid license.

9. If you have a complaint with your school despite all of these measures, you can call the Complaint and Compliance office in Sacramento at (916) 229-3154.

Good Luck! If you think I am being overly neurotic about this, just refer to the recent cases reported in the paper about a student who was driven to the East Side and left in the car for 20 minutes while the instructor went shopping. Or the case of the Almaden School that hired a known felon who raped a student in 2000. Or the case of the same school who operated without a valid license for three years! All I am saying is buyer be aware!

Kimberlie Garg
Almaden

Keep the military out of our public schools

Editor,
Keep the military from going after students’ private records!

I strongly believe in a voluntary military and think involuntary recruitment is unfair and un-American.

I believe in keeping all students’ information private and do not support military recruiters having access to any information without seeking permission from the students and/or the parents and guardians of these students.

I support changing the recent No Child Left Behind Legislation Sec. 9528 that currently gives all military recruiters access to students’ private information.

Shirley Maxwell
Los Gatos

Have an opinion?

Let the Almaden Times hear from you. In order to be considered, letters must be signed by the author or come with the full name, address, and a phone number (which will not be printed).

Send letters to newsroom@timesmediainc.com, or via mail to:

The Almaden Times Weekly,
1310 Tully Road, Ste. 107,
San Jose, CA 95122