COVID-19 | 1stchoice

UPDATED 5/3/2020

Dear 1st Choice Driving Academy Family,

Good News! We are starting the back to operations process. Dates and times will be provided when we contact you. As I am sure you are all aware, there is a back log of students that we must prioritize in getting back into the classroom and in-car sessions. We ask for and thank everyone for their patience and understanding as we work through this process as quickly and safely as possible.

COVID-19 Policy and Procedures

To ensure the health and safety of all we have set our classroom up to adhere to the social distancing requirements and all students will be required to follow these rules:

BRING TO EACH CLASS

Pencil/pen
Face Mask-STUDENTS MUST WEAR A MASK WHEN ATTENDING CLASS.

ENTERING/EXITING THE BUILDING

Students will enter through the “OFFICE ENTRANCE” door only. Please do not arrive more than 5-10 minutes prior to the scheduled class time to allow us time to disinfect all tables and chairs between classes
Upon entering the building, all students are required to sanitize their hands.
Students will exit through the classroom area door only. Students must be picked up on-time.

CURRENT CLASSROOM STUDENTS (Must have attended minimum of 1 class prior to closure)

We are opening the classroom to current students ONLY for the first set of classes and it will be by pre-registration ONLY and in compliance with social distancing guidelines.
We will be calling each parent/student to set up the dates/times for the student to attend the remaining classes they need. Please DO NOT just show up, if you ARE NOT on the list for that class, we WILL NOT be able to admit you.
Students will sit in seats already set in place and are not allowed to move the chairs as they are spaced for the social distancing requirement
We are asking for a minimum of 2-hour notice if you are unable to attend a class.
If you have a fever or are sick, you may not attend class and the instructor will not let you stay.

NEW CLASSROOM STUDENTS (Have not attended any classes)

New classroom schedule will be coming soon.
New student paperwork must be completed prior to attending the first class and will be by appointment only.
All classes going forward are by pre-registration only until further notice.
New student in-car scheduling will take place once all rescheduling is complete. However, on-line registration/payment through our website (Traditional & Teen Drive Only) does get your student in line for scheduling the in-cars by the date of payment received.
We will be contacting parent/student to set up dates/times for the student’s classroom sessions. Please DO NOT come to a class if you ARE NOT confirmed for attendance of that class. If you ARE NOT on the list for that class, we WILL NOT be able to admit you.
Students will sit in seats already set in place and are not allowed to move the chairs as they are spaced for the social distancing requirement
We are asking for a minimum of 2-hour notice if you are unable to attend a class.
If you have a fever or are sick, you may not attend class and the instructor will not let you stay.

ONLINE STUDENTS

We are taking new registrations for in-car sessions for our on-line students.
New in-car scheduling will take place once all rescheduling is complete. However, on-line registration/payment through our website (Traditional & Teen Drive Only) does get your student in line for scheduling the in-cars by the date of payment received.
When we contact to schedule, we will set an appointment to get paperwork completed as well.

IN-CARS – General Rules

There will only be 1 student in the car at a time. This allows us to maintain social distancing and disinfect the vehicle after each use.

We are doing pick-up drop-off, so please allow our instructors additional time to drop off previous student and to sanitize prior to next student entering car.
If you have a fever or are sick, please notify us as soon as possible to cancel/reschedule. No reschedule fee
If we arrive and you have a fever or are sick, you will not be allowed to drive and the reschedule fee applies

Students currently scheduled during the closure-March 24th-May 11th

We will be resuming in-cars on May 12th.
We will be contacting parent/students that were affected by the closure first to begin the reschedule process.
We will be rescheduling in the original order that the students were scheduled.

Students currently scheduled after resume date of May 12th

Please be advised, due to the small volume of students who were already scheduled prior to the closure and their dates are after May 12th, we are attempting to keep those as scheduled.
However, if it becomes necessary to move those students out to prioritize those who were affected by the closure, that adjustment will be made.

Those who registered/paid during the closure and new sign-ups

We will be contacting parent/student once all rescheduling is complete
Contact will be made based on the order that registration/payment was received

We understand that everyone is ready and anxious to get their drivers ed completed and we are working diligently to get this completed.

We will update with estimated wait times once all rescheduling is complete.

As always, we thank you for you patients and understanding as we get through this process.

If you have any questions or concerns please email us at dennis@1stchoiceda.com

Thank you.,

Dennis & Kristie

1st Choice Driving Academy

UPDATED 4/9/2020

Dear 1st Choice Driving Academy Family,

We hope this finds that you and all your family are doing well.

Due to the ongoing health crisis, all classroom and in-car sessions will remain suspended. We will resume normal operations as soon as the public health officials indicate that it is safe to do so.

How Rescheduling/Scheduling In-Cars Will Work

With the end of the current health situation being unknown, we are not rescheduling current students or scheduling new students until we have a definite return to operation date. However, once we do, we will be rescheduling those first who were already scheduled and affected by the closure period. Once those are rescheduled, we will then prioritize by scheduling new students who registered with payment during the closure period according to the date they registered and made payment. Anyone who registers/pays after the date we are open again will be scheduled after all the aforementioned students.

Please see below for information pertaining to your situation.

New Students
We are continuing to accept registrations for new students. Registering with payment will put you in line to get scheduled for in-car lessons once operations resume. With our office staff working from home it may take a few days to get the registration processed. If you wish to register for the online course, please follow the instructions found under the second link located in the announcement section of the home page. Also, please read the section below that pertains to online students for further information on the process. When we resume operations, in-cars lesson scheduling will be done based on the order of registration/payment received date.

Online Students

If you are still working on your online course, please continue and complete the course. Please make sure to put the online certificates (Certificate of Enrollment and Certificate of Completion) in a safe place because we will need the originals of these prior to doing the in-car lessons along with signed paperwork. We will make the arrangements to get the certificates and complete paperwork when we contact you for rescheduling/scheduling.

Classroom Students
We will be resuming classroom classes at the first possible date we can. We will be contacting all classroom students to let you know the exact start date and when the classes you need are available. However, if you wish, you may switch to the online course. You will need to purchase the on-line course by following the instructions provided in the second link of the announcements on the home page. Please be sure and notify us that you are switching so that we can set you up with the proper state required paperwork. The online option process does differ from the classroom in that there are certificates you will receive from the online provider and we will need those original certificates prior to in-car lessons and a new contract must be signed as well. Keep in mind, the classroom and online curriculums cannot be combined. If you do switch to online, you will need to complete the entire 24-hour course, even if you have already attended seven of the eight classroom sessions.

If you have any additional questions or need further clarification, please do not hesitate to reach out to us. Email is best at this time.

Thank you for you patients and understanding as we get through this difficult time.

Dennis & Kristie

1st Choice Driving Academy

UPDATE 3/23/2020

Dear 1st Choice Driving Academy Family,

For the safety of you and our employees we will be suspending all drives and continuing with the class suspension until April 6, 2020. At that time, we will assess the situation based on the directives of Governor DeWine.

Our office will be open by appointment only. We are still available by phone and email for questions, concerns and registration for the upcoming summer months. Please feel free to contact us at 614-907-5903 or dennis@1stchoiceda.com.

It is our sincerest hope that all are doing well and we want to assure you that once the stay-at-home order is lifted we will be ready to get our students going again ASAP.

Please check back here for updates to the time parameters of the suspension and the return to operation dates.

Thank you for your patients and understanding during this time.

Dennis & Kristie

1st Choice Driving Academy

Dear 1st Choice Driving Academy Family,

This announcement comes with a heavy heart as it deeply saddens us to disappoint our students, but effective March 20, 2020 we will be suspending the classroom classes until further notice. This is certainly a trying and difficult time for all and we will get through it together. Please be assured that whatever the duration of time that the classes are suspended, your contract will be extended. If you have questions, please read this in its entirety as we have tried to include as many answers to questions that we believe you may have.

We are currently moving forward with the in-car sessions with precautions in place. There will only be one student in the car with an Instructor at any given time. This will allow our Instructors time to sanitize between each student. We are keeping the current pick-up drop-off arrangements. Whether it be an at home pick-up/drop-off or at our facility, the Instructors will need additional time in dropping off the previous student first and sanitizing the vehicle prior to picking up your student. We ask for you patients and understanding in extending our Instructors this additional time.

Also, if a student has completed at least one classroom session, they are eligible to participate in the in-car sessions. They do not have to have completed the classroom to do the drive sessions. They will have to complete the classroom portion when the classes open back up to receive their certificate even if drives have been completed. For those that have signed-up for classroom sessions, but have not yet started, please contact our office so we can discuss options and steps going forward.

All online student drives that are currently scheduled will go as planned and an appointment needs to be set to drop-off/sign paperwork as usual if not already complete.

The office will be open regular business hours on Friday, March 20th and Monday March 23rd if anyone needs to pick-up certificates or drop-off/sign paperwork. Starting with Tuesday, March 24 office hours are by appointment only. Please call the office at 614-907-5903 or email us at dennis@1stchoiceda.com.

We will continue to answer/return phone calls for any additional questions/concerns and for those who wish to get their students signed up for Driver’s Ed for the coming months.

Please be advised that Ohio BMV’s are currently closed until further notice. This includes all testing sites.

We will keep you updated with any changes and as always feel free to reach out to us with any questions or concerns.

We thank you for you understanding and we are praying for all.

Thank you,

Dennis & Kristie Bowman

1st Choice Driving Academy