The D.C. Department of Motor Vehicles indefinitely suspended a new rule that would have required new motorists to take a private driver education course to get a D.C. license. (D.C. Department of Motor Vehicles)

D.C. city officials announced Thursday they are indefinitely suspending a new rule that would have required residents to complete a private driver education course before earning a driver’s license.

The requirement, set to go into effect on May 1, had raised concerns in some quarters that it was unfair to some potential drivers who might not be able to afford a private course, which can cost upwards of $1,000. Others were caught off guard by what they said was a lack of public notice about the change.

“We are taking this action to give us a chance to further review the impact it may have,” said Vanessa Newton, spokeswoman for the D.C. Department of Motor Vehicles.

D.C. Council member Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3) said this week that she was concerned about the new requirement and, had the city not acted, that she would have introduced emergency legislation to block its implementation. Even with Thursday’s announcement, a spokeswoman for her office said Cheh still plans to hold hearings on this and other DMV-related matters next month.

Anyone who was seeking a license for the first time would have been required to take a driver education course, which consists of 30 hours of classroom time and eight hours of behind-the-wheel practice, at a D.C.-approved driving school. People who already had valid learner’s permits prior to May 1 would have been exempted from the requirement as long as their learner permits were valid at the time of their road test appointments.

It’s not clear why city officials opted to require driver education courses. Researchers have long questioned whether the programs make people better drivers or lead to fewer crashes. In recent years, however, some safety advocates have suggested that new approaches to driver education may yield benefits, though no concrete links between such courses and driver behavior have yet been found.

[Safety experts doubt the benefits of driver education]

Cheh said she learned about the change from constituents who were puzzled about the reasoning behind the new requirement. Last month, she sent a letter to Lucinda M. Babers, the director of the D.C. DMV, seeking answers.

In her response, Babers wrote that the education requirement for first-time drivers supports “the District’s goal for safer streets and reduced accidents.”

Her letter noted that 41 states require driver education courses.

As for concerns about the cost of the courses, Babers wrote, “Although program cost is a consideration, it should not be the driving factor when it relates to safety.”

Babers’s one-page response only raised more questions for Cheh, who wanted a better understanding of why the department opted to make the change.

“I don’t want [rules] being put into place without a full understanding of why,” Cheh said.

Driver education used to be offered in D.C. public schools but was dropped in 2009; officials said the courses no longer fit with the system’s academic focus. In Maryland, the state’s largest school district, Montgomery County Public Schools, dropped the driver education courses in the early 1990s when the state stopped paying for them. Even so, both

Maryland and Virginia require driver education for new drivers. Driver education is offered in all Virginia public schools.

John Townsend, spokesman for AAA Mid-Atlantic, said that while the prerequisite may be better than no driver education, D.C.’s new requirement leaves too many questions unanswered.

“Our concern,” Townsend said, “is that if you go from nothing — there’s no driver education — to saying for safety’s sake we’re now going to require it, is it going to necessarily be better?”

Correction: An earlier version of this article misspelled the name of Lucinda M. Babers.