New Hampshire Driver Education for Teens: What Your Family Does and When

Before anything else: yes, your teen has to take the course

There is no way around driver education for a 16 or 17 year old in New Hampshire. RSA 263:19 only allows the DMV to license someone that age who brings a certificate from a course run by a public or private high school or by a driving school licensed under state law. You also sign written permission as the parent or guardian.

According to the DMV, more than 60 commercial schools teach the program, along with some public high schools. At 18 the rule falls away, although the DMV still suggests a course to anyone who is learning from zero.

There is one narrow door. If your teen has a documented disability covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act, the same statute lets you ask the Commissioner of Safety to waive part of the requirement. Approval is up to the Commissioner, so call the Driver Education office before you sign up for anything.

At 15 and a half: practice starts without a permit

Most states hand teens a permit card first. New Hampshire never does. RSA 263:25 lets an unlicensed person who is at least 15 and a half drive on New Hampshire roads as long as they carry proof of age and a qualified licensed adult is in the front passenger seat. It does not matter which state the learner lives in.

The law lists the people who qualify: a certified driving instructor, a parent, a legal guardian, or another responsible licensed adult who is 25 or older. That means an older brother or sister who is 18 or 22 cannot take your teen out, however good a driver they are.

Here is the part parents tend to miss. The adult in the passenger seat answers for any traffic violation the learner commits. Talk through speed, phones and routes before the first drive. Nobody with a suspended or revoked license, in this state or elsewhere, may practice, and learning in a commercial vehicle is a separate path that needs a regular license, age 18 and a commercial learner permit.

Around 15 and 9 months: what the course covers

Think of the course as three parts. The classroom part runs at least 30 hours with a certified instructor and includes two 45 minute awareness modules approved by the director, one on motorcycles and one on tractor-trailers. The driving part is at least 10 hours at the wheel with a certified instructor. The observation part is at least 6 hours riding along while another student drives.

Say your teen turns 15 and a half in January. You can start practice drives that week, and a course that begins in April works if your teen is 15 years 9 months by the first class. Many families find the instructor hours go better when the teen already has a few months of parking lots and quiet roads behind them.

• Classroom: 30 hours minimum, of which online may count for 15 at most
• Behind the wheel with a certified instructor: 10 hours minimum
• Observation in the training car: 6 hours minimum
• Required inside the classroom hours: a 45 minute motorcycle module and a 45 minute tractor-trailer module

Choosing a school, and the online question

A course that is entirely online will not qualify. The cap is 15 online hours out of the 30, and every driving and observation hour happens in person with a certified instructor. When a school advertises online classes, ask exactly which hours that covers and how the car time gets scheduled.

The DMV keeps a Driver Education Schools page sorted by town. It warns that some licensed schools asked not to be listed, so a missing name does not prove a school is unlicensed. If you are unsure, the Driver Education office is at 23 Hazen Drive in Concord, phone (603) 227-4075. Tuition is whatever each school charges; the state does not set it.

At the end, the instructor gives your teen the green Driver Education Completion Certificate. Keep the original somewhere safe. A copy will not be accepted at the license appointment.

Through the spring and summer: your 40 hours

The course is not the finish line. Your teen also needs 40 hours with a licensed parent or guardian, or with a licensed adult over 25 if no parent holds a license. At least 10 of those hours have to happen in the dark, which the law defines as half an hour after sunset through half an hour before sunrise.

Hours can start counting at 15 and a half. You and your teen both sign the record. Use either the DMV's Certification of Additional Supervised Driving sheet or the Road Ready app that comes with the state's Parent's Supervised Driving Program. If you are only after a motorcycle endorsement, the 40 hours do not apply; an approved rider training program replaces them.

Fill in the log after every drive instead of rebuilding it from memory in a rush. Without the signed log and the green certificate on the day, the DMV will not start testing.

On test day at the DMV

Your teen sits three tests in this order: vision, knowledge, then road. The eye test asks for 20/40 vision with both eyes. The knowledge test is taken on a computer and needs a score of 80 percent. It comes in English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Mandarin, Portuguese, Farsi and American Sign Language.

Plan for the possibility of a fail. After a failed knowledge or road test the next attempt is at least 10 calendar days away. A no-show at the road test, or a cancellation with less than a day's notice, pushes that to 30 days, so treat the appointment like a flight.

After you pass: living with the Youth Operator License

Anyone licensed from 16 up to 21 gets a vertical Youth Operator License printed with their 21st birthday, which is also when it expires. Until your teen turns 18, three more rules apply on every trip.

If your teen gets the license in June, the first six months, through December, carry the tight passenger limit. After that the curfew and the seat belt rule still stand until 18.

• The car stays parked from 1 a.m. to 4 a.m.
• During the first six months, at most one passenger under 25 from outside the family, unless a licensed responsible adult aged 25 or older is also riding
• Never more people in the car than there are seat belts

If something goes wrong: tickets and young drivers

Young drivers are on a shorter leash. RSA 263:14 lets the DMV, after a hearing, suspend someone under 20 for a conviction: 20 to 40 days for the first, 45 to 90 days for the second, and 90 to 180 days for a third, which also requires an in-person driver program before the license comes back.

The worst offenses carry their own penalty. A youth operator convicted of DWI, reckless driving or going more than 30 mph over the limit loses the license for at least 90 days on top of any court penalty, and has to complete an approved in-person driver attitude program first.

Points bite sooner too. Under 18, 6 points in a calendar year can lead to a suspension of up to 3 months; a driver 21 or older reaches that line at 12. And two speeding tickets in the first two years of the license bring an SR-22 insurance filing for three years.

Money, insurance and families moving in

As of October 2026 the Youth Operator License costs $10 for each year up to age 21. The DMV sets no insurance discount for driver education, so ask your own insurer whether the green certificate lowers your premium. Call them when practice begins and again when the card arrives, since the policy follows the car. An SR-22 requirement after two early speeding tickets usually costs far more than any discount saves.

If you move here with a teen under 18 who already holds a license from another state, your teen still has to meet the New Hampshire rules for minors. That means taking driver education here, or having the Driver Education office confirm that the out-of-state course counts. Permits from other states are not honored or transferred.