Parkside Driving School

Washington is in the midst of major changes to driver education right now. Parkside is working hard with state and national partners to help these changes be helpful for new drivers in our area. One of the projects we are involved in is looking for feedback from young novice drivers and their families, and they're offering a $25 gift card!!! You can be part of the solution. See details below!

Dear Driver,
You are invited to participate in a research study led by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) under BTSCRP-37, “Strategies to Improve Access to Driver Education and Training for Novice Drivers.” Their goal is to identify barriers and develop practical strategies that help state highway safety offices, state driver licensing agencies, and departments of education improve access to driver education and training for all prospective drivers.
They are hosting an online focus group with drivers across age groups, including:
Teen drivers (under 18) and their parent/caregiver
Young drivers (18–24)
Older adult drivers (25+)
Any age drivers who identify as neurodivergent (e.g., ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, dyslexia/dyscalculia, dyspraxia/ coordination differences, or, speech or language disorder)
All participants who take part in the focus group will receive a $25 Amazon gift card.
As central stakeholders, your input is invaluable to identify barriers to accessing driver education and informing strategies to improve access for future drivers.
Each group will participate in a separate focus group session on Zoom for 60-90 minutes. To help them place you in the appropriate session, please fill out this short form (https://tti.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1AIqaLdP1zgXlvU). We will follow up with the session date and time once your response has been received.

Our payment system has been restored. You can make payments from the student portal again.

Today marks a sad day for drivers ed in Washington. For years, our customers have been feeling the cost of driver educating is too high. Today, Washington state begins requiring the collection of sales tax on our courses.

Parkside and other schools across the state really are trying to keep costs down. We know it doesn't look that way sometimes, but we truly are. The addition of this tax really hurts.

New Driver Guide Announcement!

Washington State has been working on a new driver guide book for a couple years. Recently, the old book disappeared from DOL shelves because they ran out. Now, the new book is showing up.

There is no better resource for preparing to take the state knowledge exam. If you want to pass, forget about practice tests and get your eyes on this book.

As of right now, if you go to a DOL office, you should be able to pick up an English version. Within a couple weeks they should have stock of the Spanish version. They are slated to have all languages stocked by the end of August.

Of course, if you want the electronic version, those are available now by visiting this link.

Driver guides | Washington State Department of Licensing The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

The State of Washington is making changes to driver education. Parkside is on the leading edge to help the state bring novice driver training up to date. We know some of these changes may be popular while others not so much. Regardless, here's a quick list. Please share your thoughts if you like.

Beginning 1/1/27 - All new drivers under age 19 must take a training course. This requirement increases to age 20 on 1/1/28, and age 21 on 1/1/29. This training requirement eventually extends to age 25 in a reduced way.

Financial assistance for low income - A voucher system is being created to assist low income new drivers pay for training.

Mandatory additional training for those who commit multiple moving violations - Drivers who receive multiple tickets within a specific time, will be required to take a course to avoid a license suspension.

Online Drivers Ed - Since Covid, schools have been allowed to hold classes via Zoom (or similar) virtual platforms. This law change allows schools to continue to choose to provide in-person, virtual, self-paced online, or a blend of those.

There are other changes as well, but this post is long enough. Share your thoughts!

Parkside Fans, it's that time again!!! We opened registration for driver education classes today. This is for classes starting in January thru early spring. They may fill fast, so make sure you grab one that works for you!

parksidedriving.com

For all of you patiently waiting for our Fall class schedule to release. It's Time!!!

Go to ParksideDriving.com and register for an available spot!!!

Hey Parkside Fans!

This Monday the 8th at 10AM. Go to parksidedriving.com and register for one of our summer classes.

Don't be slow. Some classes will sell out quickly.

Home | Parkside Driving School The story about Parkside is not so typical. We not only have a passion for traffic safety, we also race cars in competition.

Attention Parkside Fans!!!

This coming Friday, Feb. 16th @ 10AM we will be opening registration for classes starting in April, May, and the beginning of June.

There will be another registration period later in the spring for our full summer schedule. We need to figure out a few things before we can go live with those dates. Stay tuned!!!

Despite a little creative photo editing, no we did not have a car hit our building. Nice try. 😀

Due to an unavoidable conflict, our Yakima office will not open Friday 7/28 until about noon. You can leave a voicemail for us if you need and we will call you as soon as we can.

Registration for fall classes will still open at 10AM on parksidedriving.com. In most cases, you can handle that registration process without calling us or coming to the office.

We apologize for the inconvenience.