Getting a Florida Teen From Learner's License to Class E

Before you start: the 2025 rule change parents keep missing

If an older sibling or a neighbor got their permit a few years ago, their advice is out of date. Until July 1, 2025, a Florida teen could qualify for a learner's license by sitting a short TLSAE class (the 4-hour drug, alcohol and traffic law course) and then passing the written exam and an eye check. In 2025 the Legislature passed Senate Bill 994, now Chapter 2025-104, which took TLSAE out of the teen path and put a full driver education course in its place.

The controlling statute is section 322.1615. It ties the learner's license to a department-approved course whose content matches or goes beyond the Department of Education's Driver Education/Traffic Safety-Classroom description, number 1900300. The Senate staff analysis sums up that standard: the graduated licensing rules, handling the car, defensive strategies, how to share the road with people on foot, bikes and motorcycles, and what alcohol and drugs do to a driver.

TLSAE has not disappeared. Section 322.095 now points it at first-time applicants who are 18 or older. So when a blog post tells a 15-year-old to knock out a 4-hour online drug and alcohol class and then book the permit test, it is describing the rules as they stood before mid-2025.

Before you start: DETS, the course FLHSMV expects

FLHSMV's name for the new teen course is Driver Education Traffic Safety, shortened to DETS. It lasts at least 6 hours, is held to the same 1900300 classroom benchmark, and your teen can take it online or in a classroom from an approved provider. The law took effect July 1, 2025, and FLHSMV started enforcing it on August 1, 2025 for applicants under 18 who have never been licensed anywhere.

A school course can replace DETS. FLHSMV accepts a school's 1900300 or 1900310 classroom class, along with Driver Education Licensing Assistance Program (DELAP) classes that some county school boards run. A teen who completes DELAP successfully does not need DETS on top of it.

What if your teen already finished the old TLSAE class? Anyone who completed it before August 1, 2025 had one year from the completion date to use it. Once that year runs out with no license issued, DETS is required. Approved providers file each completion electronically in the state system known as DICIS (Driver Improvement Certificate Issuance System), and the state charges $3 per certificate.

Choosing where your teen takes the course

Every district school board in Florida must offer secondary students a course in safe motor vehicle operation. A district may teach it in house, bring in a Chapter 488 licensed commercial school, or hire a certified instructor under contract. Start by asking your teen's high school what it offers and when enrollment opens.

Private schools and online companies sell courses too. The only ones that count toward the learner's license are courses FLHSMV has approved for that purpose. Have any provider show you proof that FLHSMV approved it for teen learner applicants, and ask how your teen's completion gets to the state.

In some counties the school district contracts with the county tax collector so tax collector staff can run road tests right on campus. The driver education teacher at your teen's school will know whether that happens locally.

• District course at school: usually the cheapest route, but seats fill by enrollment window
• Chapter 488 licensed driving school: ask to see its FLHSMV approval
• Online provider: make sure it is approved for the learner's license, not just TLSAE or traffic school

Before the permit exam: the paperwork you sign as a parent

FLHSMV lists three forms for minors, and you will meet them at different stages. The Parental Consent Form, HSMV 71142, goes with the learner's license application; a step-parent can sign it only after legally adopting the teen. HSMV 71144 only matters if your teen tested online. HSMV 71143 (Certification of Minor Driving Experience) arrives at the Class E stage and confirms the 50 hours.

You sign each one with an examiner watching, or get it notarized when you cannot make it to the office. By signing, you take on responsibility for your teen's driving, and you share liability for negligent driving by the minor. You can later withdraw consent with a letter to FLHSMV, and that cancels the teen's license.

On permit exam day: at an office, at school or at home

Expect 50 multiple-choice questions covering signals and signs, safe driving practice and the rules of the road. The pass mark is 40 correct, or 80 percent. FLHSMV offered the exam only in English when we checked in October 2026, so a teen who reads more comfortably in another language should still study the official handbook in English.

Teens under 18 can test at home with a third-party administrator that FLHSMV has approved, and you sit in as proctor. You then sign HSMV 71144, the Parent/Guardian On-line Test Proctoring Form, before a notary or an examiner. Some DELAP high schools also give the exam in class and record the result directly.

A pass online can still be checked. Section 322.56 lets the state randomly choose anyone who passed with a third-party administrator for a free retest at an office. Fail that retest and the next attempt carries the reexam fee.

During the learner year: the supervision and hour rules

With a learner's license, your teen drives only when a licensed driver aged 21 or older sits in the seat closest to their right. That supervisor's license has to cover the type of vehicle being driven.

The first 3 months are daylight only. From month four, your teen can drive up to 10 at night. Driving alone or outside those hours is treated as a moving violation and fined at the Chapter 318 civil rate.

A moving violation conviction in that year can delay the license. Under section 322.05, the only way to stay on schedule after a ticket is to choose traffic school so the court withholds adjudication (section 318.14).

During the learner year: collecting the 50 hours

No 16- or 17-year-old gets a Class E until an adult (parent, guardian or another responsible adult) vouches for 50 hours of driving with a licensed driver 21 or older, and at least 10 of those hours have to be at night.

The law asks for your signature, not a state logbook. Keep one anyway. Write the date, start and end time, the weather and who was in the passenger seat. It keeps your certification truthful and shows you the gaps, such as highway merges or wet roads, that need more work.

Here is a worked example. Say your teen gets the learner's license in March. The daylight-only stretch runs through early June, so the after-dark sessions mostly belong in summer and fall, when 10 p.m. driving is allowed and darkness comes early enough to practice. Spreading roughly an hour a week across the year gets you past 50 without a cram at the end.

Road test day: what is tested and what it costs

The full Class E exam checks eyesight and hearing, tests knowledge of signs and rules, and ends with a practical drive. Alcohol and drug law is part of the written portion, and by law the pool of questions includes no fewer than 25 about cyclists and pedestrians.

In October 2026 the fee written into the statute for a first Class E was $48. Failing costs extra: $10 every time the knowledge test is retaken and $20 every time the drive is retaken. County tax collectors run many offices and may add service charges, so call yours before you go.

After your teen passes: the 16 and 17 curfew

A Class E license does not end the restrictions. Section 322.16 keeps a driver younger than 17 off the road from 11 at night until 6 in the morning, unless an adult licensed driver of 21 or more rides along or the drive is directly to or from a job.

At 17 the blackout window narrows to 1 until 5 in the morning, with the same two exceptions. On the 18th birthday the time limits are gone. Breaking curfew is a moving violation with a Chapter 318 fine.

• Age 16: no driving alone from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m., except work trips
• Age 17: no driving alone from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m., except work trips
• Age 18: the time restrictions end

After your teen passes: insurance questions to ask

The only course discount Florida forces on insurers is for drivers aged 55 or more who finish an accident prevention course the state has approved. There is no matching mandatory discount for teen driver education, so any break for a new teen driver is the insurer's call.

Before you choose a course, phone your insurer and ask which completion certificate it recognizes. Ask about a good-student discount in the same call; each company decides that on its own.

If something goes wrong: points, school and alcohol

Section 322.161 is aimed at drivers aged 15 through 17 who collect points. Six points or more inside a 12-month span (parking tickets excluded) means at least a year of driving for business purposes only. Each extra point tacks on 90 more days. If nothing else applies, the restriction ends at 18.

Florida also links the license to school. Section 322.091 expects a minor to be in school, in home education or in an approved program, or to hold a diploma or an exemption; once FLHSMV is notified of noncompliance it can suspend a learner's license. And for anyone under 21, a breath or blood test reading of 0.02 or higher brings a suspension under section 322.2616.

• Age 15 to 17 and 6 points in a year: driving for business only, 1 year minimum
• Each additional point during the restriction: another 90 days
• Under 21 with 0.02 alcohol or more: administrative suspension
• Failing the school attendance rules: license withheld or suspended

If you are moving to Florida with a teen driver

If your 16- or 17-year-old is already licensed in another state or country, they can get a Florida license provided nothing on that license would lead to a suspension or revocation here. Surrendering a valid out-of-state license can also get the written and road tests waived.

Section 322.031 gives a nonresident who takes a job here or enrolls children in Florida public schools 30 days to get a Florida license if they drive, and the same 30 days applies to a spouse or dependent child. If your teen only had a learner permit in the old state, call FLHSMV to ask whether that course and permit time carry over.