DEFENSIVE DRIVING COURSE FOR LICENSED HIGH SCHOOL DRIVERS

SmartDrive Classic is made available to all high school students who:

  • hold a valid state driver’s license,
  • Are enrolled in public, private, parochial, charter, vocational-technical and home school programs recognized by the Department of Education in Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania.

This course is offered at no charge for qualifying students.  SmartDrive recognizes that some students attend schools outside their state of residence, please be sure to correctly identify both your state of residence and location of your school.

Following completion of the three CORE LESSONS, licensed high school drivers may opt to continue earning points towards scholarships and other prizes by having their parent/guaradian complete Lesson 4  – THE PARENT LESSON, and Lesson 5 – SMARTDRIVE ESSAY.

THE PARENT LESSON cover areas including preparations before driving, extended reviews of distracted, drowsy, drunk and drugged driving situations, traffic laws and signage, weather conditions, vehicle conditions and related topics to help them understand the topics you covered.

For Lesson 4- SMARTDRIVE ESSAY, you must submit a well-reasoned response to one of the offered topics.

Completion of all the LESSONS and ESSAY makes students eligible for end-of-school year scholarships and other prizes.

SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAMS FOR DRIVERS IN HIGH SCHOOL

In addition to the Defensive Driving (BASIC) course benefits, licensed high school drivers can compete for post-secondary scholarships awards and other prizes made each year in each SmartDrive region.

For the current school year, the SmartDrive regions are:

  • Delaware North
    (New Castle County)
  • Delaware South
    (Kent and Sussex Counties)
  • Maryland’s Eastern Shore and suburban Southeastern Pennsylvania
    (MD – Caroline, Cecil, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne’s, Talbot, Wicomico and Worcester)
    (PA – Chester, Delaware, Lancaster, Montgomery and York)

The scholarship awards for the current school year are:

First place — $1,000 Post-Secondary Scholarship
(payable to the student’s enrolled post-secondary institution)

Second place — $250 in gift cards from local and regional merchants

Third place — $100 in gift cards from local and regional merchants

The prizes are awarded to the students in each region who earns the highest combined scores from the tests required at the end of each LESSON, and on the ESSAY. Each LESSON and the ESSAY has a maximum score of 100.  The maximum total score is 500.

HINT – The best way to maximize your scores is:

  • Approach the LESSONS as an open book test,
  • Complete all of the LESSONS, and
  • Spend quality time in drafting and proof-reading your ESSAY before submitting it.

A FEW ITEMS OF NOTE

Upon completion of the CORE LESSONS, the SmartDrive Classic Defensive Driving Certificate will be sent to the student and the parent approving the enrollment  via electronic mail as a PDF file attachment.  Please save the certificate to your personal device or computer when you receive it.

Essays are reviewed in April of the current school year (August-July). Essays may be submitted until midnight on March 31st, of the current school year.

Scholarship and other Prize winners will be notified via electronic mail or telephone call to the email address/phone number reported during the SmartDrive Classic enrollment. All prizes, including scholarships, must be claimed by July 31st of the current school year. If you do not acknowledge the notifications, your scholarship or other prize may not be awarded.

SmartDrive Classic is all about DECISIONS and CONSEQUENCES.

You must make them rapidly, decisively and forever in a heartbeat, a blink of an eye. We want to help you to make them well by understanding and retaining the LESSONS which will give you a body of information and skills from which to draw rapidly, instinctively, when you need it most – behind the wheel. These skills will remain with you for a lifetime – and we hope it’s a long and happy one, which is why we, at SmartDrive, do what we do. We care about you.