Instructor Responsibilities and Ethics
What this domain tests
This domain tests professional conduct: legal scope of practice, student safety, honesty in records and advertising, confidentiality, boundaries, and mandated reporting. The exam expects you to choose the safe, truthful, student-centered action when a customer or employer pressures you.
Core rules
Practice only within your Idaho driver-training authorization and your school's approved courses. You may not certify completion, sign a state form, or endorse a student for a license you are not authorized to approve. Safety overrides schedule: cancel or shorten a lesson in unsafe weather, vehicle condition, or student impairment.
Ethics and boundaries
Use dual-control vehicles and pre-trip inspections. No phone use for personal business during instruction; no personal errands; no extra passengers without school approval. Maintain professional boundaries: no romantic or sexual relationships with students, no discriminatory or humiliating comments, and no disclosure of student records except with consent or as required by law.
Advertise accurately and disclose fees, refund rules, and vehicle-use charges before enrollment. Never guarantee a license or a passing score. Do not falsify attendance, behind-the-wheel hours, completion certificates, or vehicle logs. If a student is not ready, document the deficiency and prescribe more practice.
Report crashes, injuries, suspected abuse or neglect, and suspected impairment under school policy and Idaho law. Cooperate with ITD audits and investigations. Avoid conflicts of interest, such as selling a product to a student during a lesson or accepting a gift to change an evaluation.
Worked example
A parent offers $200 to sign off the remaining 10 supervised hours because the student drives fine. The instructor refuses. Signing false hours is fraud, undermines the GDL system, and leaves the student legally unqualified. Instead, schedule supervised drives and give the parent a written practice plan.
Traps
Treating the student as a customer to be pleased at all costs; using a personal phone; posting student photos; discussing one student's performance with another; and helping by pre-signing a log.