Behind the Wheel in Delaware: From School Car to 50 Hours

Before the permit: car time inside the course

The Department of Education's regulation 540 puts driving into the high school course itself. Every student gets 7 or more hours as the driver in a lab setting and 7 or more riding along while a classmate drives. Each of those class hours lasts 45 minutes or longer.

A school can swap part of the 7 driving hours for a simulator, counting four simulator hours as one on the road, or for an off-street range at two to one. The swaps can never exceed half the driving time. Car time normally comes after the classroom work, and passing both is what earns the Blue Certificate.

Months one to six: the 50 hour stretch

Throughout the first half year on Level One your teen drives only with a supervisor, and in that time the two of you need at least 50 hours behind the wheel, 10 of them at night. Spread across 26 weeks, that is about two hours a week.

Nobody at the DMV counts hours. When month six ends, the sponsor certifies them and the certification goes to the Department of Education. A false certification puts the sponsor's word and the teen's license on the line.

Example: permit issued on September 1. Aim for 25 hours by Thanksgiving, with a few winter evenings counted as night hours, and you finish the 50 by the start of March with room to spare.

Months one to six: who may sit beside your teen

A supervisor has to be licensed, aged 25 or older, with a Class D license held five years or more, and must be a parent, guardian or someone the sponsor has approved. The supervisor rides in the front passenger seat; sitting in the back does not count.

Adult learners have it easier: any licensed driver 21 or older can ride with them. So a 22 year old brother can supervise his 30 year old sister on an adult permit, but not his 16 year old sister on Level One.

Keeping the log

The Department of Education publishes a 50 hour booklet for parents with a log and suggested lessons, and the DMV's Parent's Supervised Driving Program has pushed a logging app since 2013. The 2025 booklet gives two different instructions, handing the signed log to the driver education teacher before solo driving in one place and mailing it to the Department's driver education office in another, so ask your teen's teacher which one to follow.

Fill in each drive the same day: the date, when you started and stopped, whether it was light or dark, and what you worked on. Logs rebuilt from memory at the end are the ones that come up short.

What to practice in those hours

Use the time on the driving Delaware really asks of new drivers: merging onto I-95 and Route 1, summer beach traffic in Sussex County, two lane country roads in Kent County, roundabouts, and wet pavement. Spend part of the night hours on dark roads with no streetlights, not just a bright parking lot.

The DMV road exam, which new residents and 18 year olds who leave the program take, covers parallel parking, a three point turn, reversing 50 feet, merging, lane changes, intersections and responding to signs and signals. Even if your teen will never sit that exam, drilling those skills makes a safer driver.

If you want more instructor time

Families can pay for extra lessons with a commercial driver training school that holds a DMV license. Only licensed schools may teach for a fee, so look the school up on the DMV's list before paying.

Paid lessons do not shorten the 12 month permit and do not count in place of the 50 supervised hours. They are worth it for an anxious teen, or for a parent who would rather a professional handle highway driving first.

If you are 18 or older

On a temporary instruction permit there is no hour requirement and no curfew. You drive with a licensed companion 21 or older who is qualified for the vehicle class, and that companion should wait at the DMV during your road exam in case you do not pass.