Sec. 138.4. Course approval

(a) An organization seeking approval as a motor vehicle accident prevention course sponsoring agency shall apply to the commissioner for approval in writing on forms prescribed by the department. No one may conduct a course unless the course has been approved by the Department of Motor Vehicles in accordance with the standards set out in this Part.

(b) An organization which proposes to offer a motor vehicle accident prevention course for point and insurance reduction benefits must submit a completed application to the department for approval in accordance with standards set out in this section and section 138.5 of this Part.

(c) An application shall not be considered to be complete until all information and materials required by this Part and article 12-B of the Vehicle and Traffic Law have been submitted. The department shall either approve or deny an application for course approval no later than 90 days following submission of a completed application. In the event the department takes no action on an application after 90 days following submission of a completed application, the application shall be deemed denied.

(d) To be approved by the department, a course must meet all of the following criteria:

(1) the course must have been given for at least two years by the applicant agency or organization prior to the submission of an application to the department;

(2) the applicant organization must provide, at its own expense, verifiable research documentation showing evidence of the course's effectiveness in terms of reduced convictions or accidents or both, based on the criteria set forth in this section for initial course approval;

(3) the course must provide a minimum of 320 minutes of instruction with a certified instructor present. The instruction must include active learning techniques (i.e., student participation). If the course is conducted in one day, a minimum 30-minute break must be allowed in addition to the instruction time. Such instruction must address the following subject areas:

(i) the concept of collision prevention, including a discussion of the factors involved in traffic situations;

(ii) alcohol and drug use as a contributing factor in motor vehicle collisions;

(iii) accident prevention techniques;

(iv) the use of occupant restraints;

(v) the risk factors involved in driver attitude and behavior such as speeding, reckless and aggressive driving, and improper lane use, etc.;

(vi) traffic laws in New York State;

(vii) physical and mental condition of drivers (i.e., age, vision, hearing, mobility, illness, fatigue, etc.);

(viii) conditions and strategies of driving; and

(ix) city versus suburban driving and rural versus expressway driving;

(4) the course must use up-to-date audio/visual aids such as films, slides, and videotapes which should not use more than 25 percent of the presentation time. The balance of the presentation time shall be led by a qualified instructor in an approved classroom based on standards set out in section 138.8 of this Part; and

(5) no course may be offered in New York State by more than one sponsoring agency.

(e) Evaluation of motor vehicle accident prevention course.

This subdivision shall apply to all sponsoring agencies applying for initial course approval.

(1) All sponsoring agency applicants shall supply the department with proof of effectiveness consisting of verifiable research documentation employing accepted research principles in order to evaluate the impact of the New York State Point and Insurance Reduction Program. The evidence shall be specific to the course submitted, and shall not be more than five years old.

(2) An independent audit of course evaluations may be requested by the department to be performed at the expense of the sponsoring agency.

(3) The department may conduct its own evaluation of any approved course offered for point and insurance reduction benefits.

(4) Submission of any fraudulent or intentionally misleading data will disqualify that organization and all owners and principals from participating or approval in the accident prevention course for a period of 10 years from the submission date.

(5) The effectiveness of the course will be measured in terms of reduced convictions or accidents or both, based on the course attendees (the treatment group) as compared to a matched group of motorists who did not attend an accident prevention course (the control group) during the same time frame. This documentation shall be based on motorist records from the jurisdiction in which the course was given. The following criteria shall be used for the purpose of this evaluation and all renewal evaluations required under section 138.5(f) of this Part:

(i) Treatment group.

(a) Each treatment group shall be comprised of a minimum of 3,000 randomly selected motorists from course attendees. For specialized courses, the sample treatment group shall be comprised of a minimum number of 1,000 randomly selected drivers.

(b) The documentation shall include conviction or accident data for each motorist for a minimum of 18 months prior to the course completion date.

(c) The documentation shall include conviction or accident data for each motorist for a minimum of 18 months subsequent to the course completion date.

(ii) Control group.

(a) Each control group shall be comprised of a number of motorists equal to that of the treatment group, but with no previous course attendance, similar to the treatment group by sex, age, geographic region, and, if possible, number of convictions or accidents during the time frame equal to the treatment group.

(b) The documentation shall include conviction or accident data for each motorist for a time frame prior to the dummy attendance date equal to that of the treatment group.

(c) The documentation shall include conviction or accident data for each motorist for a time frame subsequent to the dummy attendance date equal to that of the treatment group.

(iii) Statistical procedures.

(a) A normally accepted statistical procedure, applicable to the type of data and evaluative design used, which compares quantifiable measures of performance before and after intervention, for a treatment and control group may be used.

(b) The level of significance shall be at.10 or stronger.

(iv) Miscellaneous.

(a) The documentation shall contain a description of the sampling and analytic procedures used.

(b) The documentation shall include the motorist identification number and the course completion date for all course attendees should the Department of Motor Vehicles need to verify course effectiveness using different motorists and statistical procedures.

(c) Applicants must supply, upon request, any background documentation that serves as the basis for evaluation of the course, such as drivers' abstracts, reports or other materials.