The Guide to Defensive Driving SchoolI should preface this review by saying my knowledge of the ins and outs of this business came from working there for three years. After a leave of one year, I felt this might be a good way of ensuring that parents and guardians looking for a good driving school for their kids might have the information they need. I'll do a breakdown of pros and cons below.Most of the instructors are extremely polite, informative, and overall great teachers. There are a few personalities there that simply do not fit with everyone, and when you've had a lesson with someone who doesn't click with you, find another instructor quick as you won't learn as well when the style clashes with you. Most are relatively reliable and prompt, with only a few sticking out as particularly problematic with not showing up at all to a lesson.They are cheaper than Sears Driving School. The reason for this is that they also /own/ Sears Driving School so they inflate the prices at those locations in order to have a "competitor" that they can point to that is not as cost effective of an option.Most recently, they have taken to doing a 1 time two hour video session instead of a sixth drive for your child. The reason for this is that it's cheaper to pay 1 instructor for 1 Saturday afternoon than for the 20 driving sessions that being with your child would be. In addition, based on the way they structure your driving lessons, this will mean that if your child doesn't pass their evaluation drive on their 5th drive, they may charge you for an additional driving lesson or else your child will not pass. The instructors do not fail students on purpose for this, but the Department of Licensing standards for this drive mean it is a hard test. It used to be done on the 5th and then repeated on the 6th if they didn't pass it, giving the child pointers on what they could do to improve. If they passed the first time, the 6th drive was used for an advanced lesson.In a similar vein, this video session is intentionally scheduled only once every month or two in order to mean that if your child misses it, you will have to pay for an additional lesson or to extend the course. By Department of Licensing standards, you only have 3 months to complete a course without the driving school being fined. The school knows this so tries to extend it, cite DoL policy to you, and pass along their fee and a percentage on top of it in order to profit.Let's get on to scheduling your drives. They are one on one driving lessons with the instructor, occasionally with a student doing an observation fo the drive in the back. Your student must do 1 observation drive, and I always recommend doing this first because it allows them to know what to expect with their instructor. If it's within the first 2 drives, you're generally doing fine. Beyond that, your child will be bored out of their minds and just fulfilling a requirement for the DoL standards. They only allow you to schedule a drive 60 days in advance, which can make scheduling actually quite difficult when you're attempting to be proactive. And you need to be proactive particularly in the summer as they overbook classes by 2-4 students. That's right, not only will your child not be given a decent amount of individual attention, but some classes will not actually have enough chairs for students in high volume areas.Now to discuss fees. If you are a friend of the family that runs this, you can do as you wish without fee or reprocussion. If you don't happen to be a close friend of a Fawcett, be prepared to pay for something on top of what you paid for the initial course. Missing a drive or canceling within 48 hours of a drive under any circumstance will mean you need to pay for another one to reschedule. (This does not apply to observations.) Generally that is $60, but that was a year ago, and there was talk of increasing it to $75. If your student misses more than 3 days of actual classroom time, they will say you need to pay for the full course again, but when you argue, you'll get it for 50% of total cost. Always argue for this and ask to speak to JC Fawcett, the owner.When arguing your points, be prepared for the office staff to be unable to help you. It isn't their fault. No options have been given to them other than to not admit fault, repeat DoL policy, and cite the terms and conditions when you signed up online. Please be gentle with the office staff. They are making $4-5 less an hour than what they would be making in the same position 2 miles south of where they are, and they are chronically overworked. The company has a policy of not giving them overtime pay or full tiem benefits, meaning they are trapped often at 32 hours a week. There are a max of 5 people working in an office that services 26 locations on the best of days, and generally speaking there's usually 3 of them working the phones, 2 only on weekends. They're doing the best they can. Have patience with them. Read Less

Took my boy in for a drive test.  The door is locked, we are all just waiting out in the hall in this dump of a building.  The guy shows up 5 minutes late, walks by all of us without a word, goes into the class, sits and starts to get ready.  The whole experience left a very bad taste. Read Less

This is a good driving school. The teachers are nice but can be strict, which is needed for learning how to drive. The classes can feel long but they are filled with important information, and the classes are even made fun sometimes to reduce some of the boredom! We get occasional projects such as one group project and one research article throughout the course, but they aren't that bad so the projects aren't a big deal. If you don't have a lot of time on your hands, this may not be a great time to take driving courses, but this is a great driving school. Read Less