New Missouri Law Gives Driving Students More Time to Get License before School Starts

Those of you who are high schoolers learning to drive will have more time to get your license before school starts, beginning with the 2020-2021 school year. The Missouri General Assembly and Gov. Mike Parson passed a law changing the date that schools in Missouri can start.

Under current law, schools can start no earlier than 10 days before the first Monday in September. The new law would change that to 14 days – technically a whole 4 days earlier than current law. The catch? The current law has allowed school districts to set an earlier start date if school districts held a public hearing first. That means that if a school district followed the current law for the 2019-2020 school year, school would start on August 23 or later. School districts who voted to start school sooner are starting school instead on dates like August 12 or August 15, giving current driving students almost two weeks less time to get their licenses before starting school.

Since most school districts have already set their calendars for the school year 2019-2020, the law goes into effect for the school year 2020-2021. In 2020, the earliest a Missouri school district can start school will be August 24, which is 14 days before the first Monday in September, but later than most school districts would start. Those of you who hope to get their driver’s license before school starts will get almost two extra weeks to do it!

Our instructors here at the Missouri Driving School are fully prepared to help you learn to drive and get your license – whether you fall into the category of students who want to get your license before school starts this year or whether you have your eye on getting your license before school starts next year. Call us at (314) 849-4590 to talk about your timeline for learning to drive.

St. Louis-area students, is this great news or what?