(a) The Driver Improvement Program created by this article shall be administered by the commissioner. The commissioner is authorized to promulgate and adopt rules and regulations necessary to carry out this article.

(b) For the purpose of generating greater interest in highway safety, the commissioner may solicit the assistance of local governmental authorities, associations, societies, clubs, schools, colleges, and other organizations or persons knowledgeable in highway safety driving standards to participate in conjunction with the department in the development of local driver improvement programs and in conducting driver improvement classes.

(c) The department is designated as the agency responsible for the certification of DUI Alcohol or Drug Use Risk Reduction Programs and staff. This responsibility includes selection of the assessment instrument, development of the intervention curricula, training of program staff, and monitoring of all DUI Alcohol or Drug Use Risk Reduction Programs under this article.

(d) All DUI Alcohol or Drug Use Risk Reduction Program records including, but not limited to, assessment results and other components attended shall be confidential and shall not be released without the written consent of the DUI offender, except that such records shall be made available to the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities and the Department of Driver Services. The provision of assessments to the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities shall be according to an interagency agreement between the Department of Driver Services and the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, and the agreement may provide for assessment fees to be transmitted to the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities.

(e) The department shall conduct a records check for any applicant for certification as an operator, director, or instructor of a DUI Alcohol or Drug Use Risk Reduction Program. Each applicant shall submit at least one set of classifiable fingerprints to the department in accordance with the fingerprint system of identification established by the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The department shall transmit the fingerprints to the Georgia Crime Information Center, which shall submit the fingerprints to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for a search of bureau records and an appropriate report and shall promptly conduct a search of state records based upon the fingerprints. After receiving the report from the Georgia Crime Information Center and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the department shall determine whether the applicant may be certified. No applicant shall be certified who has previously been convicted of a felony. The department shall promulgate rules and regulations regarding certification requirements, including restrictions regarding misdemeanor convictions. No applicant shall be certified unless he or she is a United States citizen, or if not a citizen, he or she presents federal documentation verified by the United States Department of Homeland Security to be valid documentary evidence of lawful presence in the United States under federal immigration law.