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TEDRS
Reimbursement for the 2026 fiscal year will be landing soon! We appreciate your patience as we navigate the important financial paperwork involved in distributing the traffic education funding. It is imperative for all schools to keep in mind the July 10th deadline for TE06 Year-End-Reports so all schools may receive their payments in a timely manner. This year's reimbursement is estimated to be on par with last year's reimbursement of $153 per student. When finalized, reports of reimbursements by county and by district will be listed on the OPI Traffic Education website under Forms and Reports. Contact the traffic education office if you have any additional questions.
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Instructor Hot Tip!
A teen’s inexperience behind the wheel makes them more susceptible to crashes, so including teen safety messaging in a traffic safety communication plan is important. Specific risk factors for teens behind the wheel include: alcohol and drug use, not wearing a seat belt, distracted driving, additional passengers, speeding, and drowsy driving.
Teen Driver Safety Week is October 18–24, 2026 – a good opportunity to increase safety messaging across all platforms.
- Traffic crashes are a leading cause of death for teens (15-18 years old) in the United States.
- In 2024, a total of 2,320 people were killed in traffic crashes that involved a teen (15-18 years old) driver, and 752 of those killed were the teen driver.
- Of the 2,320 people killed in crashes involving a teen (15-18 years old) driver, 478 were the passengers of a teen driver.
- 280 (59%) of those fatalities were other teens riding with a teen driver.
- Of those teen passengers killed while riding with another teen driver, 61% were male and 39% were female.
- In 2024, there were 85,947 teen (15-18 years old) drivers injured in traffic crashes.
Visit the NHTSA Marketing Materials website for more materials and messaging opportunities to share with your teens. Montana Teen Driver Safety Day is October 20th. Does your school do something special to promote safe teen driving habits for Teen Driver Safety Week? Share your projects and ideas by emailing them to our office. Information can also be found at the link above for Halloween and other upcoming holiday safety topics.
Information provided by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the United States Department of Transportation.
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Montana Adapted Illustrated Manual Audio Files Have Changed!
Did you know that 140 pages of the Adapted Illustrated Montana Driver Manual were read and recorded by volunteers of the Montana State Library? These files are available through the Montana Talking Book Library. Recently, during the change to a new host server, the OPI Driver Education website was unable to handle the file merge. Good news for our instructors and students though; the files are now available on the Google Drive! You can access, download, and repost the files to your Google Classroom. Here is the direct link to the Montana Adapted Illustrated Driver Manual Audio Files.
The files have been restored to the OPI website and are available there as well. Let us know if you or your students have trouble accessing the files and we would be happy to help you get the materials you need to succeed.
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A Letter from the Director
Greetings all,
Welcome back to school! I hope that you are all settling in, have had a refreshing summer, and are off to a great start this year.
As we move into fall, many have already started Traffic Ed programs and many more will be starting them soon. Please remember that our office is here to help you if you need access to TEDRS or if you need support.
We encourage instructors, district clerks, and administration to collaborate in creating district applications, student lists and year-end-reports. With all the information that needs to be collected and shared, teamwork will make the process smoother and better for all.
I would like to remind all instructors that, according to the CDTP agreement we have with MVD and state law, no student who has not reached the age of 14 ½ years can be tested for their permit. It is critical that all instructors testing adhere to these rules.
Please also keep in mind that testing records, both written and road tests, must be delivered to MVD within 3 days of administering the exams. Final student lists must also be delivered within 3 days of class completion. This means that there will be multiple times that records are given to MVD during a session of Traffic Education.
I do hope that your year is going well and continues. Again, we are here to assist with whatever we are able and look forward to hearing from you.
Mike Houghton
Director of Traffic Education
 Information provided by MDT and Montana's Vision Zero.
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Contact the Traffic Education Office with questions about state-approved traffic education programs in Montana, becoming a state-approved traffic educator, attending a Montana DRIVE Workshop, or for parent and teen driver education resources.
Call (406) 444-4432 or visit http://opi.mt.gov/DriverEd
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The OPI is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to people with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation, require an alternate format, or have questions concerning accessibility, contact the OPI ADA Coordinator, 406-444-3161, opiada@mt.gov, Relay Service: 711.
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