Nebraska Teen Drivers: Choosing Your Path to a POP

Before the first permit: course or no course?

Nebraska leaves it to you. Path A is a Nebraska driver safety course that the DMV has approved. Path B is a signed statement of 50 practice hours, 10 or more of them after sunset and before sunrise, from a parent, a guardian or another licensed driver 21 or over.

The course path saves a test day. The school reports results to the DMV electronically and the DMV drops both its written and driving tests. Families on the 50 hour path still take vision and driving tests at a licensing office, though the written test is skipped for anyone holding an LPD that is current or no more than a year expired.

There is no rule saying a course is better. Families tend to decide on cost, schedules and how many evenings a parent can realistically spend in the passenger seat.

Before the first permit: which permit fits your family

Nebraska has more starter permits than most states. The LPE is open at 14, lasts six months, and exists only as practice toward a School Permit. The LPD is open at 15 (you may apply up to 60 days early) and lasts a year. Each one needs vision and written tests, and on each the supervising driver is licensed, 21 or older, and in the front passenger seat.

The School Permit (SCP) is the rural option, for families living or schooling outside any city of 5,000 people or more. Requirements: your teen is 14 years and 2 months or older, has had an LPE or LPD for two months, and has completed either an approved course or the 50 hours. Your teen can then drive alone between home and school, and to school activities, taking the most direct roads. The SCP runs out when your teen reaches 16 years and 3 months.

• LPE: from 14, good for 6 months, $13
• LPD: from 15, good for 1 year, $13
• SCP: from 14 years 2 months, rural students only, $13

Before the first visit: documents

Every first permit, whichever kind, starts with the same paperwork. Bring one item, such as a certified birth certificate, that proves citizenship or lawful status and shows your teen's full name and birthday, for example a certified birth certificate or a passport, and two or more items showing where the family lives in Nebraska.

The DMV checks the Social Security number against federal records, so it has to match the card exactly. The DMV's Document Verification Requirements sheet, available in English and Spanish, lists everything it accepts. Citizenship only has to be proven once; later visits skip that step.

If you chose a course: finding a school

The DMV keeps an alphabetical Approved Driver Safety Schools list with contact details, instructor names and the places each school teaches or tests. The list mixes private driving schools with high schools, districts and community colleges; the DMV approves and audits all of them.

Instructors at these schools can give the DMV's driving test themselves, and once passing results arrive the DMV waives its own test. Whether a class can be taken online is not addressed on the DMV's page, so put that question to each school.

Moving up can often happen from your kitchen table. Once the school's completion results are in the DMV's system, a teen who had a learner's permit while taking the class, or who already held a School Permit, can be issued the POP on the DMV's online license portal. The same works for a School Permit once the LPE or LPD has been held two months or longer.

The exception: when your teen took the course before being old enough for an LPE, the school gives you a paper waiver form instead. In that case you must go to a licensing office and hand the form to the examiner.

If you chose 50 hours: keeping the log

The certification covers 50 hours or more of lawful driving, at least 10 between sunset and sunrise. The DMV's examiner manual lets you count driving done under any Nebraska permit or license (LPE, SCP, LPD, Class O) or under another state's, so long as the document had already been issued when the hours were driven.

A parent, guardian or licensed driver of at least 21 signs the form, which you download from the DMV's POP page. Fill it in drive by drive rather than reconstructing it the night before the test.

For structure, the DMV recommends the Parent's Supervised Driving Program, a sequence of lessons that each build one skill, and a two page GDL brochure summarizing permit and POP limits. Nebraska's Department of Health and Human Services also offers a written driving contract for parent and teen to sign, so the family rules are on paper.

There is also an optional DMV log and skills checklist, form 06-91A, with rows for skills such as night and bad weather driving, parallel parking and railroad crossings. Nobody at the DMV asks to see it. The document the examiner needs is the signed 50 Hour Certification, form DMV 06-91, so record the hours any way that works for you and complete the official form last. Example: if your teen gets the LPD at 15 and a half, six months of practice lands right on the 16th birthday, and 50 hours over 26 weeks is about two hours a week.

After the POP: the rules for the first year

Solo driving on a POP is allowed from 6 a.m. until midnight. From midnight to 6 a.m., solo trips are limited to going between home and a job or school activity. Any hour is fine if a parent, guardian or other licensed adult 21 or older rides along.

In the first six months, your teen may carry just one passenger under 19 who is not immediate family. Every person in the car must be belted or otherwise restrained.

As on every permit, no interactive wireless device may be used while driving. That means phones, texting devices and laptops, and it covers calls, not just texts.

If points show up

If three points or more land on the record during the half year before the application, the POP is off. Three or more in the past 12 months blocks the move to Class O until your teen turns 18 or the record clears. Reading, typing or sending messages on a handheld device is a 3 point violation on its own.

Under 21, six points within a year triggers an order to finish a DMV certified improvement course. How long it runs depends on which DMV page you read: the under 21 suspension page and the certified course list say four hours or more, the POP page still says eight, so go by your notice or call the DMV. Miss the three month deadline after the DMV's notice and the permit or license is suspended.

Budgeting: fees and insurance

October 2026 fees: an original LPE, LPD or SCP is $8 plus the $5 security fee, so $13. An original POP is $15 plus $5, so $20. Replacements are $16, and changing a class, endorsement or restriction is $10.

Each driver safety school sets its own tuition, which the DMV list does not show. Call several schools and compare.

We found no Nebraska rule obliging insurers to discount premiums for a completed driver safety course. Ask your insurer before choosing a route; a discount, plus skipped DMV tests and saved hours, can make the course cheaper than it looks.

If you are moving in with a teen driver

A teen under 18 who surrenders a valid license from another state has to satisfy every POP eligibility and testing rule and is given a POP rather than a full license. Practice from the old state still counts on the 50 hour form.

The paperwork is the same as for any first permit: citizenship or lawful status, two Nebraska address documents, and the Social Security number.