Gourley

May the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) reject certificates of completion from students who take a driver education correspondence course from a private high school, on the ground that correspondence courses are per se inadequate? We hold that it may not. The Legislature has expressly declined to regulate the format and content of private school driver education courses. The DMV may not regulate what the Legislature has chosen to leave unregulated. The trial court issued a writ of mandate compelling the DMV to rescind its policy and accept certificates of completion from Pacific High School, and we affirm.

Factual and Procedural Background

For persons under the age of 18 in California, learning to drive entails two forms of instruction, driver education and driver training. (Veh. Code, § 12814.6, subd. (a)(3).) Driver education covers the “classroom” aspects of learning to drive—the rules of the road, the causes and consequences of accidents, and the like. (Ed. Code, §§ 51220, subd. (j), 51851.) Driver training involves the practical or laboratory aspects, including time behind the wheel. (Id., § 51852.)

Pacific High School (Pacific) is a private high school. It…