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Background

As part of the Florida Teen Safe Driving Coalition’s Strategic Action Plan, the Driver Education Subcommittee was formed in August 2022 to support Goal 3: Improve Florida’s Teen Driver Education and Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) Requirements. The subcommittee’s work directly addressed Action Steps 3A and 3C, with a clear focus on improving the quality, relevance, and consistency of Driver Education throughout the state.

The primary objective was to develop a comprehensive Model Driver Education Curriculum, designed to update and modernize Florida’s K–12 Driver Education and Traffic Safety course (Course Code 1900300). This curriculum ensures alignment with nationally recognized best practices and meets Florida Department of Education standards.

Membership:

The Driver Education subcommittee consisted of various members of the Florida Teen Safe Driving Coalition. These members included:

  • Commercial driving school owners and managers
  • Public School Driver Education instructors and administrators
  • Traffic Safety School owners and managers
  • Both online (synchronous and asynchronous) and face-to-face educators
  • Florida Department of Education
  • Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles
  • Florida Department of Transportation 
  • Trauma prevention specialists
  • Virtual driving trainers

Curriculum Foundations

To build the model curriculum, the subcommittee gathered exemplary resources and standards from:

In addition, the subcommittee drafted model legislation to:

  • Replace the outdated 4-hour TLSAE with a full Driver Education course as a licensure requirement
  • Consolidate fragmented teen licensing policies under a single, comprehensive GDL statute

Timeline of Development

June 2022 The Florida Teen Safe Driving Coalition Strategic Action Plan was created.
August 2022

As part of the Strategic Action Plan’s Goal 3, Action Step 3A, a Driver Education Subcommittee was established made up of various members of the coalition (see membership above.)

Per action step 3A.3, the Driver Education Subcommittee decided to create a model Driver Education Curriculum to serve as a framework to update the course description of Florida’s K-12 Driver Education and Traffic Safety (1900300) course.
November – December 2022 The subcommittee held discussions on identifying best practices and collecting model curriculum materials, fulfilling Action Step 3A.2.
February 2023 Best practices and curriculum were gathered and discussed (see Curriculum Foundations above).

Model legislation was created to:

  • Replace the 4-hour TLSAE with a full Driver Education course requirement
  • Unify teen licensure requirements under a streamlined GDL law
June 2023 Collected materials were organized into a comparative matching chart to align topic areas across sources.
November 2023 The matching chart was used to generate a finalized list of topics to be included in the model curriculum.
February 2024 – February 2025

All topics and content are reviewed, refined, and integrated into a single curriculum document. Version requirements are developed, and their supporting components are clearly defined.

February 2025 – All model version requirements were written and the final language was reviewed and proofread.
June 2025 The curriculum is scaffolded into a coherent instructional sequence. At the conclusion of the coalition meeting, Action Step 3C.1 is reported as completed.

Download the Model Curriculum