Vermont DMV education unit outlines rider, driver and CDL training programs and supports two‑year instructor requirement

Patrick McVanman, supervisor of the education unit at the Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles, told the Senate Transportation Committee on Tuesday that the unit runs motorcycle, driver education, commercial driver’s license (CDL) and school‑bus training programs across the state.

The agency oversees eight training ranges at seven locations — including two ranges in Colchester — and operates basic, intermediate and advanced motorcycle classes, third‑party testing for driver education, licensing for private driver‑education and CDL schools, and a statewide school‑bus instructor program, McVanman said.

McVanman said the DMV’s motorcycle program offers a Basic Rider Course that can lead to an endorsement on completion, an intermediate one‑day class for riders with experience who have not yet obtained an endorsement, and an advanced class taught on students’ own motorcycles. “All the other classes are taught on state motorcycles, but the advanced is taught on their own,” McVanman said.

The department supervises private driver‑education schools and CDL schools and licenses third‑party examiners who may administer driving tests. McVanman said the third‑party testing program rose from three examiners before COVID‑19 to more than 50 at one point and is now in the lower 40s. He said DMV recently allowed third‑party examiners to test students other than their own, including adults 18 and older.

On CDLs, McVanman said Vermont licenses roughly seven private CDL schools and that private employers may still train their own employees without becoming licensed schools. He also described an industry‑led instructor certification trend and recent federal entry‑level driver training (ELDT) requirements that affect instructor qualifications.

The education unit recommended aligning state instructor requirements with ELDT by requiring two years’ driving experience in the vehicle type an instructor will teach. “The reason we picked two years was the entry level driver training through the feds,” McVanman said. He added the change aims to ensure instructors have real‑world experience while increasing consistency across DMV programs.

McVanman said the motorcycle instructor pool is aging and the division would like to recruit younger instructors by lowering instructor experience from what some programs currently require (he said motorcycle instructor requirements have been higher, around four years in recent practice). He said the unit typically aims for about 50 motorcycle instructors but was in the 30–40 range for the coming season.

Frederick Garnett, education‑unit staff, told the committee the advanced rider course is also a recruitment tool: 36 people completed the advanced rider class last year, and many return to become instructors after gaining experience. Justin McClain (driver aid coordinator) and other unit staff were cited as participating in instructor development and quality assurance work with the Motorcycle Safety Foundation.

McVanman also described the school‑bus program: the unit has 24 school‑bus instructors who teach an eight‑hour statewide clinic required for new endorsements and renewals; DMV moved a previously inconsistent curriculum to a mandated statewide program and added online options for non‑CDL school activity bus training.

On costs and access, McVanman said private motorcycle and driver‑education courses charge fees that vary (private driver‑education schools “range anywhere from $800 to roughly $1,400,” he said), while public high‑school programs are free for in‑district students and homeschoolers may be eligible through their local high‑school slots. He said DMV averages about 6,000–7,000 students a year in driver education and that since 2019 more than 35,000 students have gone through driver‑education programs administered through DMV or the Agency of Education.

Committee members asked about access for homeschool students, fees for youth in state custody, winter driving instruction and whether DMV tracks how many licensed new drivers took driver education; McVanman said some of those statistics require additional data pulls and that DMV can provide periodic reports on enrollment and first‑time license issuances upon request.

McVanman advised the committee that several statutory sections in the committee’s draft — noted as sections 11, 14 and 15 — relate to the DMV’s programs. He said section 11’s proposed change to include a commercial learner’s permit in the statute’s “no masking” language made sense because learner permits are covered by federal regulation. He characterized sections 14 and 15 as proposals to align instructor qualifications for CDL and motorcycle instructors with the ELDT standard of two years’ experience.

The session included technical and access issues but no formal votes; committee members asked DMV staff to provide statistics and follow‑up materials for later consideration.