Watching crash videos in a classroom was once a rite of passage for teenagers who wanted to one day drive themselves.
Over time much of that responsibility has shifted from high schools to private businesses, as school districts have had to cut budgets and focus on instructional minutes and college prep.
A full driver's education program once cost school districts more than $100,000 in some parts of the country, according to the Associated Press. What costs so much is maintaining and insuring the cars and instructors.
It even has moved to the internet in some states, but online driver's ed is not accepted in Louisiana, according to DMV.org.
Some Louisiana high schools still offer driver's education classes, but they're not free or during the school day.
Students in Caddo Parish can take the 38 hours of driver's ed this summer at four high schools and the school board Central Office. It costs $475 in cash or money order payable to the school where the class is taken, according to a summer session flier.
That money goes to the district and is used to provide vehicles, insurance, maintainence and instructors, which are certified classroom teachers, Anthony Tisdale said.
"It is not profitable for the district," said Tisdale, who is supervisor athletics and driver's education for Caddo Parish schools.
Students can take the courses during the school year, too, but it'll be after the last bell. Tisdale said some of the schools see pretty steady enrollment in the course throughout he year.
Caddo isn't alone in offering driver's ed at its schools.
The Lafayette Parish School System offers it each June at all high schools, according to the LPSS website. Students must be 15 years old.
And several private schools in Lafayette are working with the private driving school Excellent Drivers Academy to offer driver's ed on their campuses this summer.
But other districts leave it to the private companies. Anabella Campbell took hers this summer at Cenla Driving Academy in Alexandria because it's not offered at Bolton High School.
Student-drivers
The 15-year-old said the four eight-hour classroom sessions helped her take driving even more seriously.
"It was a great way to show the impact cars have, that driving is a privilege and not a right," she said. "It shows that driving isn't a joke. I realized that before and took driving seriously, but this took it to another level."
An instructor went through PowerPoints and a driving book during the classroom hours, going in-depth into each chapter, Anabella said.
With the classroom portion behind her, she next will need to complete eight hours behind the wheel with an instructor. She'll do that in July.
It was the same for Chase Gaspard, 15, who took it 100 miles away in Abbeville. He went to Cajun Driving School in over last Christmas break.
"I could definitely tell if I wouldn't have taken it I would have no idea what I was doing," Chase said.
Now he has his learner's permit and he drives at least an hour a day with his grandmother. That was a big reason behind his going to driver's ed.
"My grandma kind of influenced me," he said. "It's easier for me to drive her around. She's handicapped. We go wherever she needs to go."
While they're running errands, Chase is getting experience and his grandmother, Sandra Gaspard, is logging his driving time in a book.
He needs at least 50 hours before he can get his "intermediate" driver's license on his 16th birthday in February. Teens don't get a "full" license until 17.
Sandra marks off the hours and things like driving in the rain or at night. When he goes to get his license, they'll have to submit a signed statement confirming Chase completed 50 hours of supervised driving, including 15 hours completed at night, according to DMV.org.
The classes cost $400 for Chase, which shocked Sandra a bit. She never took driver's ed.
It was different then. She got her license at 14 after no lessons and "wrecked the first day," she said.
So she sees the need for her grandson to take it, adding, "I couldn't have taught him because I just know it all by heart."
'A lot has changed'
"When I got my license in 1980 almost 10,000 teenagers were dying (in crashes)," said Bud Chauncy, co-owner of First Class Driving School in Bossier City. "Now it's about 3,000."
He adds that's still too many but a lot better than it was.
What has made a big difference, he said, is driver's education, which he is passionate about.
He and his wife have been running the North Louisiana driving school for 25 years. They teach teenagers, parents, adults and "driver rehab" for those with disabilities or other challenges.
Chauncy has seen a lot change over the years.
Driver's education was mandated for 15-year-olds beginning in 1993. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, all states adopted graduated licensing systems and began phasing in full driving privileges.
This was an effort to lower fatal crash rates and insurance claim rates among young teen drivers and backed by national studies of such programs and laws, according to IIHS.org.
It mandated that teens take a 30-hour class, as they still do today. Only six hours of driving were required at first, but that has increased to eight hours behind the wheel.
In the '90s teens could wait until they turned 16 when they would only need a six-hour class. Over time that age was raised to 17 and then 18.
In 2012 adults were required to have eight hours behind the wheel, too. That was a big jump from the zero they needed before.
It also meant a big price increase. Their driver's ed class went from about $50 for the six classroom hours to $500, Chauncy said, because it looped in the expensive side of teaching driving.
"What costs us the most is time behind the wheel," he said.
He knows some grumble about the cost of driver's ed today.
"People, especially Boomers, aren't used to paying for driver's ed because we got it free in high school," he said.
That doesn't seem to be an option anymore either, though, as the schools that offer it charge similar prices.
He adds that private companies and instructors have the advantage of focusing on teaching driving full-time and rather than part-time, which could be a higher quality of driver's education.
"The advantage of a professional school is that it's treated as a profession," Chauncy said.
Like other driving schools, Chauncy's business is regulated by the state Office of Motor Vehicles, which most people call the DMV.
"People think all driver's ed is a piece of paper," he said. "Parents should think it like sending their kids to college because it has that kind of lifelong ramifications."
What about the videos?
Driver's ed has changed in different ways over the years, but they still show videos.
Chase said his instructor would show a few videos each day as they did a lesson in their book. Then to wrap up the day they would show a "shock video" of crashes or other scary scenarios that can happen when you drive recklessly or distracted.
They worked, he said.
Anabella said hers did, too. Her mom, Tracie Campbell, appreciated that driver's ed "appropriately scared" the future drivers.
The crash videos reinforced the chapter about why texting while driving is illegal and how dangerous it is, Anabella said.
Chauncy and his instructor dive into that, of course, but he said they don't focus on gory videos. He said they are effective but only temporarily.
He tries to make it real to students in a different way. They do exercises to show they can't do more than one thing at a time.
And he shares statistics. A driver talking on the phone or drunk is four times as likely to crash as one who isn't. Someone texting while driving is 24 times as likely, he said.
He does show a video, though, but said it's more realistic and powerful than gory.
