Welcome to Traffic Safety Education

Oregon has one of the best Driver Education instructor-training programs in the entire nation. Western Oregon University is a proud recipient of a grant from the Oregon Department of Transportation - Transportation Safety Division (ODOT-TSD).  Thanks to this grant, we are able to:

1. Provide training and mentoring to adult instructors to prepare them to teach teen novice drivers.
   Individuals wishing to teach Driver Education in Oregon will gain a wealth of practical knowledge, as well as gain hands-on experience, both in the classroom and in the vehicle.
   
   
2. Certify and re-certify instructors to teach in ODOT approved driver education programs.
   In order to keep the quality of our program uniformly high and ensure that teens receive consistent and thorough instruction, all individuals who wish to teach Driver Education in an (ODOT-TSD) approved program are required to first complete a rigorous Traffic Safety Education curriculum and then to become certified to teach.
   
   
3. Offer an annual regional conference called the PacNW Driver and Traffic Safety Conference. 
   The goal of this conference is to provide a quality professional growth activity for traffic safety educators.  Conference sessions enable attendees to gain new information and insights on topics pertinent to the field, as well as provide an opportunity to interact with their peers from the region.
    
4. Make revisions to the Oregon Driver Risk Prevention Curriculum known as the Playbook TM. 
   We continue to make improvements to the teen curriculum, owned by ODOT,  to ensure that we stay current with the needs of the learner and the automotive technology.