Verified as of 2026-10-23 against SOS

Illinois · Behind-the-Wheel Training and Supervised Driving

Behind the Wheel in Illinois: Lessons, Practice and the Log

This page is for the parent who will ride shotgun for the next nine months. Your decision is how to spread the work, because Illinois requires two separate kinds of driving time. Inside the approved course: 6 or more hours with a certified instructor. Outside it: 50 more hours that a parent or other qualified adult certifies, 10 of them at night. The 50 do not include the instructor's time, and the permit must be held for at least nine months.

Instructor driving time: 6 hours or more
Observation time: 6 hours in the back seat
Home practice: 50 hours, 10 at night
Practice log: DSD X 152 (optional, not filed)
If a parent cannot attend: DSD X 174, notarized
Supervisor: 21+, licensed at least a year
Road test waiver: A or B grade at a participating school

Step by step

Get the classroom moving
Expect the six hours at the wheel to run during the classroom weeks or right after. The instructor rides in a car with a second brake pedal, and your teen drives on the new permit.
Print the practice log
Form DSD X 152 has columns for date, place, weather and day or night minutes. It stays with you; nothing gets mailed to the Secretary of State.
Line up your supervisors
Choose a parent, guardian, family member or person in loco parentis aged 21 or more and licensed at least a year. Check that your insurance covers the permit driver.
Mix the conditions
Spread the 50 hours over neighborhoods, highways, rain and darkness, with 10 or more at night. The log's place and weather columns nudge you to vary it.
Certify the hours
When your teen applies for the license, you vouch for the 50 hours at the counter. If you cannot be there, sign form DSD X 174 before a notary and send it along.
Road test or certificate
Either your teen drives for a state examiner, or, at schools in the cooperative testing program, a qualifying student brings the instructor's certificate instead.

During the course: the instructor's 6 hours

The Driver Education Act's minimum is 30 classroom hours and 6 driving hours on public roads with a certified instructor. State Board rules pair each driving hour with an hour of observation, which means sitting in the back while a classmate drives.

Simulator and driving range time do not count toward the six. Schools also cannot shorten the in-car part with a proficiency test after three hours, so expect all six even if your teen already drives well.

After each lesson: the 50 practice hours

No 50 hours, no license: 625 ILCS 5/6-107 makes it a condition. You (or a guardian or other responsible adult) put your name to two statements: that your teen has driven at least 50 supervised hours, a minimum of 10 after dark, and that your teen can drive safely. Lessons with the instructor do not count toward the total; the Secretary of State's letter attached to the log says so directly.

The law sets no weekly or per-session minimum, but nine months on the permit means most families average a bit over an hour a week. Night hours count only when it is truly dark, so use winter evenings instead of leaving them for summer.

Worked example: fitting 50 hours into nine months

Start in March with two 30 minute drives a week in daylight: parking lots, then quiet streets. By June, add one longer weekend drive on busier roads and a highway on-ramp or two.

In the fall, when it gets dark by 6 p.m., do the 10 night hours on weeknights. By December you have 50 hours and nine months on the permit at the same time.

Before each drive: who may supervise

The law on who can ride along is 625 ILCS 5/6-107.1. It can be a parent, a guardian, a relative or an adult standing in for a parent, provided that person has turned 21, has driven for twelve months or longer, holds a license good for that vehicle and takes the seat next to your teen. When the practice is a drivers ed lesson, the instructor fills that role.

The teen rules do not govern the supervisor's phone, but the teen driver may not use one at all, hands-free included, while under 19. A supervisor who is distracted or dozing is not supervising, and a crash on the permit can delay the license.

Paperwork: the log versus the sworn form

Think of the DSD X 152 log as your own notebook; nobody asks to collect it. Two pages of rows let you add up daytime and nighttime minutes, and there is a line at the end for the supervising adult to sign. Leave it in the car and write each drive down before you get out.

The document that matters legally is your sworn statement. On form DSD X 174, the Affidavit/Consent for Minor to Drive, you swear under penalty of perjury that your teen completed 50 hours, 10 of them at night. If you will not be at the facility in person, a notary has to witness your signature.

At the end: skipping the facility road test

Some students never drive for a state examiner. Under 92 Ill. Adm. Code 1030.88, a teen who gets an A or a B in an approved school course and then passes a road test run by a state-certified instructor can bring the signed authorization to the facility and be excused from the state drive. A school board has to sign up for this every calendar year, so ask whether yours did.

Certain students at commercial driving schools can qualify too, using either their classroom grade or an overall 80 percent. One shot only: fail the instructor's road test and the next attempt has to be at a state facility.

If you hoped to teach it yourself, or you are an adult

Parents cannot stand in for the instructor in Illinois. The course and its six lesson hours must come from an approved school or a licensed driving school. What you own is the 50 hours, and the Secretary of State offers a Parent-Teen Driving Guide and Contract to help you organize them.

Older learners have a different setup. At 18 to 20 the required course is a six hour adult class that involves no driving at all; from 21 there is no course. Even so, the Secretary of State suggests adults practice the same 50 hours (with 10 after dark) before testing, and a licensed driving school can sell lessons.

Illinois teen drivers ed: common questions

How much behind-the-wheel time does Illinois require?

Six or more hours with a certified instructor inside the approved course, then 50 hours of supervised practice including 10 at night. The 50 are separate from the instructor hours.

Do we hand in the 50 hour log?

No one collects it. You keep the log; what the state takes is your certification, given at the counter or on a notarized DSD X 174.

Can Grandma supervise?

Yes, as a family member, if she is 21 or older, licensed for the vehicle, has driven at least a year and sits next to your teen.

Do instructor hours count toward the 50?

No. Lesson time is extra; the 50 hours are yours to supervise separately.

Can my teen skip the DMV road test?

Possibly. If the school is in the cooperative testing program, an A or B student who passes the instructor's drive can hand in a certificate instead. Everyone else tests at a state facility.

Is there a parent-taught drivers ed in Illinois?

Not in Illinois. A school or licensed driving school has to deliver the classes and the six lesson hours; your part is the 50 hours of practice.

Do night hours in summer count?

Only once it is actually dark. That is why many families save the 10 night hours for fall and winter evenings.

Behind-the-Wheel Training and Supervised Driving in another state

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Sources

Rules change. If a source above says something different from this page, the source is right. Last checked 2026-10-23.

Step by step

Get the classroom moving

Print the practice log

Line up your supervisors

Mix the conditions

Certify the hours

Road test or certificate