Behind the Wheel- FCPS ACE or private?

[Anonymous]

Looking for thoughts on whether it's better to do Behind the Wheel through ACE or go private (cost difference not withstanding).

I understand the convenience factor of right after school through ACE and the appeal of getting all the hours done in one fell swoop at the end, plus I assume a lower cancellation rate. I've also been told the instructors are more lenient (which I consider a con, though I know kids do not!).

With the private school, particularly the one I'm considering (I Drive Smart), you can break up the sessions and schedule them throughout your kid's driving hours, not just wait till the end. The IDS instructors come highly recommended, though we'd have to drive about 25 mins to get to their closest meeting location and it seems sessions are more likely to be cancelled by students.

Anything I'm missing I should consider? The next available ACE session at my kid's school isn't until April and she should meet the 45 hours well before then.

[Anonymous]

Both of my kids did ACE and I have no complaints. I did originally try Aloha for DC#2 and scheduling was more flexible but also more challenging so it ended up not working for us.

FWIW for various reasons (including but not limited to scheduling) my kids both had their permits for close to 12 months and did in excess of the 45 required hours. I wouldn’t let that stop me if you decided ACE is a good option for you. Also, look at other nearby schools. My first kid did it at a HS close to home but not our base school since I was able to get a session sooner that way.

[Anonymous]

We loved ACE for DS. It was very convenient and the teacher was wonderful. I didn't even look at private driving schools because of the convenience factor and because ACE came so highly recommended.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Looking for thoughts on whether it's better to do Behind the Wheel through ACE or go private (cost difference not withstanding).

I understand the convenience factor of right after school through ACE and the appeal of getting all the hours done in one fell swoop at the end, plus I assume a lower cancellation rate. I've also been told the instructors are more lenient (which I consider a con, though I know kids do not!).

With the private school, particularly the one I'm considering (I Drive Smart), you can break up the sessions and schedule them throughout your kid's driving hours, not just wait till the end. The IDS instructors come highly recommended, though we'd have to drive about 25 mins to get to their closest meeting location and it seems sessions are more likely to be cancelled by students.

Anything I'm missing I should consider? The next available ACE session at my kid's school isn't until April and she should meet the 45 hours well before then.

Is the ACE instructor the PE teacher at your kid school? They might fell better doing it with someone they know. April is only 3 months away so I would just use ACE, at the end of the day she would have a lot more practice by then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looking for thoughts on whether it's better to do Behind the Wheel through ACE or go private (cost difference not withstanding).

I understand the convenience factor of right after school through ACE and the appeal of getting all the hours done in one fell swoop at the end, plus I assume a lower cancellation rate. I've also been told the instructors are more lenient (which I consider a con, though I know kids do not!).

With the private school, particularly the one I'm considering (I Drive Smart), you can break up the sessions and schedule them throughout your kid's driving hours, not just wait till the end. The IDS instructors come highly recommended, though we'd have to drive about 25 mins to get to their closest meeting location and it seems sessions are more likely to be cancelled by students.

Anything I'm missing I should consider? The next available ACE session at my kid's school isn't until April and she should meet the 45 hours well before then.

Is the ACE instructor the PE teacher at your kid school? They might fell better doing it with someone they know. April is only 3 months away so I would just use ACE, at the end of the day she would have a lot more practice by then.

OP here. I believe the instructors are PE teachers at her school, but she took online PE so doesn't know them personally. I will say her younger brother has one of them now and doesn't care for him, which has made her nervous if that teacher is her instructor.

When I look at the ACE schedule, I only see one teacher's name listed for all the courses available at our school (not the one she doesn't want). I hope that is accurate and they're actually listing the instructor who will be present.

The one thing I like about IDS is that she can do a session here and there and hopefully learn from the instructor, practicing their advice in between sessions. But again, pros and cons for both options.

Thanks for everyone's thoughts so far!

[Anonymous]

My kid did IDS and it worked well for her, especially the flexibility-- but it would NOT have been worth a 25 minute drive for me. I'd go with ACE close to home in your shoes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looking for thoughts on whether it's better to do Behind the Wheel through ACE or go private (cost difference not withstanding).

I understand the convenience factor of right after school through ACE and the appeal of getting all the hours done in one fell swoop at the end, plus I assume a lower cancellation rate. I've also been told the instructors are more lenient (which I consider a con, though I know kids do not!).

With the private school, particularly the one I'm considering (I Drive Smart), you can break up the sessions and schedule them throughout your kid's driving hours, not just wait till the end. The IDS instructors come highly recommended, though we'd have to drive about 25 mins to get to their closest meeting location and it seems sessions are more likely to be cancelled by students.

Anything I'm missing I should consider? The next available ACE session at my kid's school isn't until April and she should meet the 45 hours well before then.

Is the ACE instructor the PE teacher at your kid school? They might fell better doing it with someone they know. April is only 3 months away so I would just use ACE, at the end of the day she would have a lot more practice by then.

OP here. I believe the instructors are PE teachers at her school, but she took online PE so doesn't know them personally. I will say her younger brother has one of them now and doesn't care for him, which has made her nervous if that teacher is her instructor.

When I look at the ACE schedule, I only see one teacher's name listed for all the courses available at our school (not the one she doesn't want). I hope that is accurate and they're actually listing the instructor who will be present.

The one thing I like about IDS is that she can do a session here and there and hopefully learn from the instructor, practicing their advice in between sessions. But again, pros and cons for both options.

Thanks for everyone's thoughts so far!

Same with the teacher from Mount Vernon. The late class ends at 6:45 so pretty much works a 12 hour shift.
7:30 AM -3:00 THEN 3:TO 5 AND 5 TO 7.

[Anonymous]

My DC did IDS and really liked it, but the convenience factor of a 25 minute drive vs. after school would have me doing ACE instead. You should keep looking at locations for IDS though -- I'm surprised the nearest option is 25 minutes from you because they seem pretty scattered throughout the county. We took classes at their official Fairfax location, but also at two different rec centers and high schools. At one point, a session appeared after school at DC's own high school (which hadn't shown as an option for the previous 4 classes I had scheduled). Are classes in other counties actually closer to you? You might need to expand the filter.

I did like with IDS that DC could practice driving from different locations and routes as opposed to traveling the same roads each time.

None of our sessions were cancelled.

[Anonymous]

OP here. I'm so glad you posted, 14:54, because you made me realize that I bet only the most immediately available sessions showed up when I searched, and those are the ones that aren't close. Their Random Hills location is what popped up for me as the closest location so I'll change my filter to see what is closer.

[Anonymous]

My son did IDS and it was a great experience. At first, Random Hills was all that showed up. I have a very motivated kid who wanted his license quick but didn’t plan on scheduling his sessions in advance so he obsessively checked the scheduling page. Sessions come up frequently and he got many close to our house. We never had a session cancelled. If you go with them, keep checking because they constantly add new sessions with other locations. You can even set up alerts.

[Anonymous]

Aloha was terrible for our older kid. Ace was convenient and good enough. THe teacher was not someone from our base school but the class was right after school at our school and thus very convenient.

[Anonymous]

NP...thanks for this, will be signing up for ACE.

[Anonymous]

We did private because ACE was during sports practice time. Private wasn’t great. The instructor was a little flaky and was bad about scheduling ahead. He only wanted to schedule the next session, but we really needed to schedule it all to make sure we got the hours in. We would have done ace if we could.