4.1 The 30/6 Program Structure and Classroom Operation Rules

The Statutory Minimums

Maryland's Graduated Licensing System law "mandates all new drivers, regardless of age, complete a course in driver education that consists of a minimum of 30 hours of classroom instruction and a minimum of six hours of behind-the-wheel instruction before receiving their first noncommercial driver's license" (Maryland Driver Education Curriculum Guide, preface). There is no adult exemption in Maryland — a 45-year-old first-time applicant takes the same 30/6 course as a 16-year-old.

Two regulations carry the statutory hook:

• COMAR 11.23.02.32A — "Under Transportation Article, §16-505, Annotated Code of Maryland, a student shall complete a minimum of 30 hours of classroom instruction."
• COMAR 11.23.02.34A — "Under Transportation Article, §16-505, Annotated Code of Maryland, a student shall complete a minimum of 6 hours behind-the-wheel instruction."

Both are minimums. A school may exceed them; it may never compress them.

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Who May Teach

COMAR 11.23.02.32B and .34B use identical language for both components. Instruction shall be taught by:

1. A certified instructor; or
2. An apprentice instructor under the supervision of an experienced certified instructor.

Those are the only two lawful deliverers. COMAR 11.23.02.08C(5) reinforces the point from the school's side: only certified instructors conduct the testing, evaluation, and teaching of students in classroom and behind-the-wheel instruction. And COMAR 11.23.02.13F(11) makes it a most serious violation for a school to knowingly allow an individual to teach the program courses, conduct behind-the-wheel instruction, or test or evaluate students without the required permit or certification.

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Curriculum Fidelity (COMAR 11.23.02.32C-D)

A certified school shall conduct the classroom instruction of the MVA-approved driver education course curriculum in its entirety:

• (1) according to the standards established by the Administration; and
• (2) in the sequence approved by the Administration.

Sequence is a regulatory requirement, not a pedagogical preference. Units are designed to build on one another and to mirror the order of the New Driver and Coach Practice Guide (RD-006) that families use for the supervised practice hours.

§D closes the supplementation loophole: "Other than items already in the approved curriculum, any textbooks, videos, worksheets, fact sheets, and any other supporting materials that students may use throughout the course shall be approved by the Administration before use." A well-meaning instructor cannot add a favorite crash-investigation video, a printed handout from another state, or a commercial workbook without prior MVA approval. The curriculum preface repeats this for video: "Any supplemental videos must be approved in writing by the MVA prior to use," and the school must secure the appropriate permissions from the agency that created the video.

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Scheduling Limits (COMAR 11.23.02.32J-M)

A driver education school MAY NOT schedule classroom instruction:
    (1) for more than 3 hours in one day
    (2) to start before 8 a.m. or after 8 p.m.
    (3) to end after 9:30 p.m.

Rest: minimum 15 minutes at the end of each 90-minute period of instruction
Rest and meal intermissions:  NOT counted as classroom instructional time
Classroom instruction:        shall not exceed 3 hours per day

Work an example. A session that starts at 8:00 p.m. is lawful at its start time, but three hours of instruction plus the mandatory 15-minute break after the first 90 minutes pushes the end past 11:00 p.m., violating the 9:30 p.m. rule. In practice the latest lawful three-hour session begins around 6:15 p.m. Because the 15-minute break is not instructional time, it does not shorten the three hours of instruction — it extends the session.

§N — a certified school shall make up all missed classroom instruction if the scheduled instruction is canceled or postponed. Combined with the 8-hours-notice requirement in COMAR 11.23.02.08A(13), the regulation puts the entire cost of a school-side cancellation on the school.

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The Behind-the-Wheel Side of the Schedule

The in-car limits sit in COMAR 11.23.02.34, and they are different numbers:

There is no combined classroom-plus-in-car daily cap in COMAR 11.23.02, and there is no "one continuous hour" limit on student driving. The limits are 3 classroom hours per day and 2 behind-the-wheel hours per student per session.

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Building the Calendar

Each classroom unit is designed as a three-hour block, which maps exactly onto the §J(1) daily maximum: ten units, three hours each, thirty hours total. A conventional schedule runs one unit per session.

The curriculum guide advises that "although not mandatory, driver education schools should begin behind-the-wheel instruction before the student has completed the classroom portion," because in-car practice reinforces classroom concepts while they are fresh. That is compatible with COMAR: the student needs a valid learner's permit before any in-car hour (COMAR 11.23.02.35A(2)) but does not need to have finished the classroom course.

Worked scenario

Case. A school offers an accelerated "weekend intensive": Saturday 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and Sunday 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., delivering 12 classroom hours across two days.

Analysis. Unlawful. COMAR 11.23.02.32J(1) and §M both cap classroom instruction at 3 hours in one day. Six instructional hours in a day is double the limit, and no waiver provision exists in the regulation. The school would also need to demonstrate the 15-minute break after each 90-minute period under §K, and none of that break time counts toward the 30 hours under §L.