Supervised Driving Practice in South Dakota

Before you start: the hour rule in plain terms

The floor is set in SDCL 32-12-11: 50 hours with a parent, a legal guardian or a licensed driver over 18 who has at least a year of experience. Ten must be after dark and ten must be in inclement weather. It applies to every instruction permit issued after July 1, 2020.

A drivers ed course does not shave anything off the 50. What it shortens is the minimum time on the permit, from 275 days to 180. If your family takes the course, still log all 50 hours with an adult and treat the instructor's sessions as a bonus.

Who may sit in the passenger seat

In daylight the supervisor can be any licensed person who is 18 or older, has held a license for a year and sits beside your teen. That lets an older sibling, a grandparent or a family friend share the load. From 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., only a parent or guardian qualifies.

Front seat means front seat; a supervisor dozing in the back does not count. If the person riding along fails the age or experience test, your teen is legally driving alone on a permit. That is a permit violation, and it carries a 30 day suspension.

While you practice: the log and your signature

DPS gives you a Supervised Driving Log for tracking sessions. At the upgrade, you sign the Supervised Driving Affidavit at the exam station. The pamphlet checklist does not ask you to hand in the log, but keeping one means your signature rests on a real record if anyone ever asks.

That affidavit is a legal statement. Signing for hours that never happened is more than bending a rule; it sends a teen out alone without the practice the law assumes they had. Count time actually moving on the road, not time parked or idling in the driveway.

What a local drivers ed program adds

School and community programs pair classroom lessons with in car sessions led by an approved instructor. SDCL 32-12-28 even allows an enrolled student to drive on designated roads with that instructor before getting a permit.

Online courses sold by private companies are a different story. DPS does not review or recognize them, and they neither shorten the permit nor waive a test. Each local program decides its own driving hours, schedule and price, so ask how much of the time is your teen actually driving, whether back seat observation is counted, and what score earns the certificate.

Practice sessions built around the road test

Examiners want to see everyday driving done safely, and certain mistakes bring an automatic 30 day wait before a retest: causing a crash, going through a stop sign or signal, not yielding to a vehicle or pedestrian, excessive speed, weaving or poor control, and turning into the oncoming lane. Plan sessions that rehearse exactly those moments.

A sample month: two daytime sessions a week in town working on stops and yields, one night drive on county roads, and whenever the weather turns, a session in an empty lot to feel the brakes on snow before you take it onto the street.

• Complete stops behind the line at each stop sign, held while the eyes check both directions
• Giving way to pedestrians, and to through traffic at rural crossroads
• Holding a steady lane on two lane highways that have no shoulder
• Watching speed in town, where limits drop quickly near schools
• Driving unlit gravel and county roads at night with an eye out for deer
• Testing stopping distance on packed snow and ice, first in an empty lot and then on the road

After the hours: the next stage and what still needs you

With the hours logged, the hold time served and six months free of traffic convictions, your teen can apply for the restricted minor's permit and drive alone between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. For the first six months, only family and household members may ride along.

Your job as supervisor is not over. Until the full license or the 18th birthday, any driving between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. still needs a parent or guardian in the car, apart from direct trips for school, religious events, work or farm work.