Transfer from another school
In the past year, almost a dozen schools in south King County and north Pierce County have closed down, such as Freedom Driving Schools, Northstar Driving Schools, American Driving School, and Rainier Driving School, leaving parents and students stranded with incomplete driver's ed courses. Our heart goes out to you if you were affected by these closures, and we'll do our best to help as much as we can.
We accept transfers from other schools as capacity permits, and will give credit for classroom attendance, plus completed driving lessons and lesson observations. This does depend on the availability of records from the closed school, of course. We will also prorate the tuition based on what you have completed already.
Call or text us for assistance: 206-207-5555, or send us an email
What happens when your school closes suddenly
The Washington State Department of Licensing, Driver Training School division is the department that regulates our industry. They have some resources to help recover student records, but they do not get involved with refunds or compensation of any kind. There are a few places you will want to contact:
• The school itself
Try to request your student's attendance and driving records if at all possible. This will save you some money and time, so you don't have to start a new course from the beginning. You might find a sympathetic ear from an employee who can help, and we recommend being polite if you can actually reach someone. Calmly request any records so you can continue your education at a different school. Yes, they are terrible for taking your money and you should rightfully be angry, but you'll catch more flies with honey.
• Department of Licensing, Driver Training School division
This is the department that regulates driving schools, and the best way to reach them is through email: tse@dol.wa.gov They do have a phone number, but it is no longer answered and voicemails may not be returned. The DOL will attempt to recover student records to assist with transfers and also to enforce compliance of the rules, but their main recourse is only fines and license suspension/cancellation for bad actors. Still, you'll want to reach out to them to assist with getting your student's records if the school does not communicate with you.
• Your credit card company
If you used a credit card to pay them, file a "chargeback" for the fees you paid to the school if the service was not provided. Call your credit card provider for assistance with this. Even if the company has vanished, your credit card company is still likely to refund you. Be sure to send any information you have about the closure when filing, as they only take one complaint statement from you.
• Office of the Attorney General
They need to receive a lot of complaints before they will consider legal action against the business, but they'll start with sending letters to the owner(s): https://www.atg.wa.gov/file-complaint
What the transfer process looks like:
The Washington State Department of Licensing works as an intermediary to certify that the records from the closing school are legitimate. They can tell the new school how many classroom hours, driving lessons, and lesson observations were completed. You'll need to reach out to both the school you want to transfer to, and the DOL. Reach the DOL by email at tse@dol.wa.gov
Examples of how a transfer works with us:
• If you have not completed your driving lessons
We charge $100 for a 1-hour driving lesson, and our program requires 5 driving lessons to complete the course. You may also need to attend two 2-hour video simulation courses which substitute for a sixth driving lesson (no charge for this). If you have already completed two driving lessons, for example, you'll only need to purchase 3 more.
• If you have completed most of the classroom portion, but not all of it
For less than 6 hours of classroom portion, we do not charge a fee to help you complete the classroom portion. Most of our classes are done online over the Zoom platform, and can be taken from anywhere.
• If you have completed some of the classroom portion, but not all of it
If you need to attend more than 6 hours of classroom portion, we do have you take the classroom portion for a fee, which is $199 plus sales tax. Most of our courses are done online over the Zoom platform, and can be taken from anywhere.
• If you have not completed your lesson observation from the backseat
We do not charge an extra fee for this.
• If you have not taken the course final exam
We do not charge an extra fee for this. We'll give you some resources to help you study, and all of our classroom sessions are available for review on YouTube for free. There's no attendance credit given for watching them, but they are available for informational purposes.