Driver Ed FAQ

A Segment 1 course consists of 24 hours of classroom instruction, 6 hours of behind the wheel instruction, and 4 hours of observation. Students are given an exam on their last day of segment one and must get a 70 percent or better on the exam to finish the course.

For students under 18 years of age, this is the first step taken in order to obtain their license. Students will also need to take a Segment 2 course and a road test to obtain their license.

For students 18 years of age or older, Segment 1 and 2 are not required by the state. You can still take the courses to learn to drive, but you will not receive a certificate of completion for each of these courses.

All students will need to go to the Secretary of State and obtain a permit (TIP) before you can begin any of your behind-the-wheel driving lessons. The permit will cost $25 and it requires you to pass a written exam. If you are are taking Segment 1 to prepare for the written exam to obtain your permit, you will only be allowed to complete the classroom portion of Segment 1 until you feel prepared enough to pass the exam and get your TIP.

SEGMENT 1 STUDENTS need to provide verification of their age. This can be a birth certificate, shot record, state of Michigan ID, or any legal document that has the students full name and date of birth will be considered valid. These documents are used for age verification purposes and are not kept or stored.

SEGMENT 2 STUDENTS need to bring their Level 1 Learners License and driving log or application they used to record their supervised driving hours. If the student is bringing their own handwritten log, please follow the state's format. View the state of Michigan Driving Log.

Instructors are state certified. Instructors are required to pass a background check by providing the state of Michigan their fingerprints. Instructors are required to attend continuing education courses every two years upon their state license renewal. 

If you are over the age of 18 to have permit (Temporary Instruction Permit) to begin driving lessons. If you do not currently have one, please visit Secretary of State prior to enrolling. Your permit must be current and not expired. If you enroll with an expired permit, you will be required to pay a no-show fee of $45 before scheduling any future lessons..

Teens enrolling in private lessons must have a current Graduated Driver's License to begin driving lessons. 

If your certificate gets lost or damaged, another one can be issued by contacting our main office. There is a $20 fee for this service. Michigan Driving Schools can only reissue certificates for students that took courses at our locations. If you took it from another driving school, you will have to contact them for them to reissue your certificate.

Michigan requires the student to attend every class. If a class is missed due to an unexpected circumstance, the student can book a make-up session. Please text your instructor and let them know that you will not be able to attend class due to your illness etc. Students will have 45 days from the missed class to make up the session. Students that have not made up the class within the 45 days grace period will be marked as incomplete with the state of Michigan. They will be required to attend the course again. Depending on the circumstances the student could have to pay for the entire course over again. 

For any parent that has additional questions or needs more information, on any of these courses they may come to the first day or last day of class with their student. Please contact your students instructor directly to make arrangements with them so they can make sure to have all the information ready and be available to answer any questions you might have.

Segment 1 students will receive the What Every Driver Must Know Booklet and a paper contract. The contract needs to be filled out, signed, and returned the next day. Students who have not turned in this document will not be allowed to schedule any behind-the-wheel lessons. The booklet has very important and useful information. Parents interested in learning more about the G.D.L. process and requirements are encouraged to read pages 2-9. We recommended keeping the booklet to refer back to while your teen progresses through the GDL process.

Segment 2 students will receive a paper contract on the first day of class. The contract must be filled out, signed by both the parent and student, and returned to class. Students missing this document will not be able to take the final exam. Parents and students are encouraged to read the Driving Skills Test Study Guide before their road exam. This booklet has useful and important information. Students are highly encouraged to read this booklet in preparation of their road exam. The booklet explains in depth everything about the road exam process and requirements. We are no longer able to hand these booklets out in class.

Parents needing additional information can call our main office at (586)-445-1188 and leave a message, email us at info@michigandrivingschools.com, or text us anytime at (810)-300-9124.

Segment 2 is a three day course, 2 hours each day for a total of 6 hours of classroom instruction.

To take Segment 2, you must have held your level one license (permit) for three months or longer, completed 30 hours of driving (2 hours must have been done at night) in your driving log or on an app. You will need to bring your driving log and permit with you to the first day of class.

Students must be at least 14 years and 8 months of age and have your parents or guardian's permission to start a segment one course.

If a student has misplaced or destroyed their Certificate of Completion, there is a $20 fee for us to regenerate another certificate.

If you are late more than five minutes or fail to provide a 48-hour notice, then you will be charged a late fee of $45 that must be paid before you can schedule your next lesson. We understand that things come up, and life happens, we kindly ask that you take the drive schedules very seriously because our instructors time is just as important to us as everyone's families time is to them.

Cancelling and rescheduling lessons can be done by logging into the student's account on our website.

All sales are final.

Segment 1: Before the beginning of the second week, 75% of the total tuition will be refunded if no behind-the-wheel lessons have been given. After completing the first week, no refund will be given. Refunds are subject to a $50 processing fee.

Segment 2: After the first day no refund will be given. If the student is turned away due to not having the proper documentation or meeting the requirements for the course, no refund will be given. Depending on the situation, the student could be offered an option to be placed in another Segment 2 course for a $15 fee. The student will only be allowed to request one course movement. After which the student will have to pay the full tuition fee for the course again.

Adult and teen private lessons may receive a refund if requested within 48-hour of registration minus a $25 processing fee. Refunds only apply to students who are honest upon enrollment. If you provided false information on your registration, no refund will be given.

No refund will be given for students who have been removed from class for misbehavior, tardiness, or absenteeism. Students show up to driving lessons smelling like marjuiana will be expelled. The safety of our instructors and students is a top priority.

No. The student must attend two full in class sessions prior to all behind the wheel scheduling. Students that have not attended two full classroom sessions will not be allowed to schedule. Their scheduling options will not be permitted until they have been marked present for the first two sessions of the course. Segment 1 courses are intended for the classroom session and the behind the wheel lessons to coincide with each other. All segment 1 course are six weeks long in total. The classroom session will be finished within the first three weeks; the student will still have behind-the-wheel driving lessons to finish upon completion the classroom session. 

Each lesson is one hour long.

Adults enrolling in a package of more than one lesson can have two lessons done in a day if they would like to make the lesson 2 hours long. This will count for two of the lessons they have purchased. You are not allowed anymore than two hours of driving lessons per day.

Teens are not allowed to do more than one hour of driving lessons per day. 

You will be able to schedule your driving lessons by logging into our student account on our website.

No. Our driving school training vehicles are licensed and insured. After completing a segment 1 course, your parent should contact their vehicle insurance and have you added to their vehicle insurance.

No, all lessons are performed in our company vehicles that are state licensed, insured, and have a dual brake installed.

The first lesson will be an evaluation lesson; this will let the instructor gain knowledge of the students' current abilities. Students needing practice for parking are encouraged to enroll in the parking package.  Adult and Teen Private Lessons will only be performed at the student's current skill levels. Student wanting advanced levels such as expressway driving must be able to safely perform the ability; the safety of the instructor and student will be taken seriously. Students enrolled in private lesson will have to master each ability to move on to more advanced driving lessons. Such as freeway or multilane roads.

Segment 1 course consists of six total behind the wheel driving lessons. The lessons listed below are examples only. Depending on the students' abilities the lessons will be altered to meet each students needs. Some students will be more advanced than others, students will need to be able to perform each lesson safely to proceed to the next set of skills. Instructors will fill out an evaluation after each behind-th-wheel lesson. 

Drive 1: Developing Basic Driver Actions. Students are expected to demonstrate vehicle familiarization by identifing communication, comfort, safety, occupant protection, convenience, and control devices as well as pre-start procedures. 

Drive 2: Residential Neighborhoods. Students are expected to demonstrate how to enter a travel lane from roadside or a parking lane, identify and maintain a straight-line path of travel, move the vehicle forward (turning left and right), and approach and negotiate uncontrolled intersections. 

Drive 3: Suburban Streets. Students are expected to demonstrate how to manage and adjust speed and position the vehicle in response to other road users, when passing drivers, when navigating railroad crossings, and when encountering controlled/uncontrolled intersections. Students are also expected to demonstrate reversed, angled, parallel, and perpendicular parking.

Drive 4: Country and Rural Roads. Students are expected to understand that rural roads, hills, curves, vegetation, and crops can limit line of sight. Students are expexted to adjust speed and properly position the vehicle to reduce risk when entering and negotiating curves.

Drive 5: In town and Downtown Driving. Students are expected to demonstrate lawful and appropriate speed control, determine and apply appropriate following intervals, navigate simple and complex controlled intersections, navigate shared left-turn lanes, and cange lanes to the right and left.

Drive 6: Expressway and Freeway Driving. Students are expected to determine and apply appropriate following intervals, recognize and negotiate the main components of freeway travel, enter the dedicated acceleration lane, weave lanes, select lanes, change lanes, and exit the edicated deceleration lane.

Yes, if your friend and you can have the same available for every lesson. Segment 1 courses must be completed within six weeks.  The first 2-3 behind the wheel lessons must coincide with your classroom session. The outstanding lessons will be finished upon completion of your classroom session no longer than three weeks from your last classroom session.

Yes, unless the student is an adult over the age of 18 you will have a partner in the car with you for all six of your driving lessons.  The state requires you to have observation hours as well as behind the wheel driving hours to pass your segment 1 course. If you do not know anyone in the class, you will be randomly scheduled with someone for all six of your behind the wheel lessons.

This depends on the location, at some locations there will be a few different driving instructors. Students are scheduled randomly with instructors.

No, all students must get to and from the location they have registered at. Each lesson is 1 hour long in length for each student to get the full 60-minute lesson they have paid for we do not offer these types of services. The instructor will have students schedule before and/or after your lesson so this will not be possible.

If you are late more than five minutes or fail to provide a 48-hour notice, then you will be charged a late fee of $45 that must be paid before you can schedule your next lesson. We understand that things come up, and life happens, we kindly ask that you take the drive schedules very seriously because our instructors time is just as important to us as everyone's families time is to them.

Cancelling and rescheduling lessons can be done by logging into the student's account on our website.

In Michigan you must be 14 years 8 months old prior to the first day of class. You must attend two days of classroom session before you can begin any of your behind the wheel driving lessons per the state of Michigan.