Fall drivers ed classes start soon for driver education

Summer driver education classes are finished in Kalispell and fall classes are starting soon.

The first fall session already is full, beginning Tuesday.

The next fall session begins on Sept. 26 and ends on Dec. 2, with classes at 7 a.m. Students must be born on or before March 26, 1991. Everyone taking driver education must be 14 1/2 when the session in which they enroll begins.

(See below for a complete list of sessions.)

All classes are open to junior high students.

High school students are encouraged to enroll in sessions 8, 9, 11, 13, 16, 1, 2, 3 and 4. A bus from Flathead High School will be available to take them to the junior high in time for those sessions.

Register on Mondays between 7:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. at Kalispell Junior High, in the traffic education office between rooms 205 and 206 next to the stairway.

Bring a copy of your birth certificate or passport, and provide your Social Security number. Registration fee is $190.

Under Montana law each candidate must have 60 hours of traffic education, including 42 hours of classroom instruction, six hours behind the wheel and 12 hours of in-car observation. Six hours can be missed, but must be made up before completion.

Students take about 10 hours instruction before getting behind-the-wheel instruction. During the school year, they drive twice a week. In the summer, it's every other day.

A traffic education learners permit is issued through the class after 14 to 16 hours of class if students pass the state written exam and a vision test. It allows the student to drive as long as the

instructor, parent or guardian is in the front seat with the student. It's valid for six months.

After that, and after the 15th birthday, the student can trade the traffic education permit for a learner's permit or a driver's license, if they meet requirements.

But performance in school will affect participation in driver education classes.

Discipline referrals and academic problems can keep them out or get students kicked out of driver education classes.

Also, students must attend at least a half day of regular classes to be in traffic education class on that day during the school year.

For more information, call traffic education teacher Jim Scalf at the junior high, 751-3788.

Information listed here includes session number, start date, class time, completion date and birth-date requirement:

6. Sept. 26, 7 a.m., Dec. 2

7. Oct. 10, 3:30 p.m., Nov. 10

8. Nov. 14, 3:45 p.m., Dec. 20

9. Jan. 2, 2006, 3:45 p.m., Feb. 2

10. Feb. 6, 2006, 3:30 p.m., March 27

11. Feb. 20, 2006, 5:30 p.m., March 21

12. March 13, 2006, 3:30 p.m., April 19

13. April 3, 2006, 5:30 p.m., May 3

14. April 24, 2006, 3:30 p.m., May 22

15. May 22, 2006, 3:30 p.m. during school year/10 a.m. during summer, June 20

16. May 30, 2006, 3:45 p.m. during school year/noon during summer, June 27

1. June 12, 2006, 6 p.m., July 12

2. June 19, 2006, 10 a.m., July 19

3. July 5, 2006, noon, Aug. 2

4. July 10, 6:00, Aug. 7