Vehicles: driver education: provisional licenses.

Existing law, the Brady-Jared Teen Driver Safety Act of 1997, allows for the issuance of a driver's license to a person at least 16 years of age but under 18 years of age pursuant to the provisional licensing program. Under the act, licensees are required to meet specified requirements, driver education, and training, and are prohibited during the first 12 months after issuance of a license from driving between the hours of 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. or from transporting passengers who are under 20 years of age, except as provided. The act further prohibits a law enforcement officer from stopping a vehicle for the sole purpose of determining whether the driver is in violation of those restrictions. This bill would require the Department of Motor Vehicles to collect an additional fee of $10 for each provisional license application. The bill would create in the State Treasury the Young Driver Education and Safety Fund and would require the additional fee to be deposited into that fund to, upon appropriation by the Legislature, support the Young Driver Education and Safety Fund Advisory Group and to fund automobile driver's education and training in the public schools, including providing grants to local educational agencies to provide driver education and training programs in the public schools, under the direction of the Superintendent of Public Instruction in consultation with the Director of Motor Vehicles. The bill would require the State Department of Education to establish a program to provide the grants to local educational agencies, as specified, and would provide that the department may recover its actual costs from the moneys that would be allocated for the program. The bill would require the Director of Motor Vehicles and the Superintendent of Public Instruction to establish the Young Driver Education and Safety Fund Advisory Group, composed of members representing specified organizations, for purposes of assessing and recommending strategies to improve access to driver education and training, evaluating the effectiveness of current driver education and training standards and curriculum, and reviewing and making recommendations regarding the regulation of private, Internet-based driver education schools. The bill would require the advisory group to meet and hold public hearings and to submit a specified report to the director, the Superintendent, and relevant policy committees of the Legislature. The bill would require the director and the Superintendent of Public Instruction to provide to the advisory group necessary facilities and administrative support and would provide that members of the advisory group are subject to the conflict-of-interest provisions of the Political Reform Act of 1974. The bill would repeal the provisions relating to the advisory group on January 1, 2014.