Practicing for a Tennessee License: The 50 Hours

Before you start: what the state actually asks

For anyone under 18 the requirement is brief: 180 days or more on a valid learner permit, a 16th birthday, and 50 hours behind the wheel with at least 10 after dark. No classroom hours are required and no minimum time with a professional.

Every practice hour needs a licensed driver 21 or older in the next seat, and nothing counts after 10 at night or before 6 in the morning. So night hours really means evenings after dark but before 10, which is easiest to fit in during fall and winter when the sun sets early. Example: in December it is dark well before dinner, so a 6 to 7:30 drive twice a week covers the night hours in about a month.

The certificate, line by line

The certificate wants your teen's name, address and permit number, and the same details (plus license number) for the adult or instructor who is vouching. That person states the teen drove 50 hours including at least 10 at night and gives their relationship to the teen.

Write clearly in black ink. You do not staple a log to it. Keep one anyway: it backs up your signature and reveals gaps, such as no interstate miles, no rain, or nothing beyond the school run.

Who can ride along, and who can sign

Riding along and signing are separate jobs. Any licensed driver 21 or older can sit beside your teen for practice: an aunt, an older sibling, a family friend. The signature, though, must come from a parent or stepparent, a legal guardian, or a licensed instructor.

A licensed 21+ adult also has to accompany your teen to the road test. T.C.A. 55-50-311 makes the permit valid only with such a person aboard, and the examiner will not begin if a permit holder shows up alone.

If you hire help: licensed driving schools

Commercial driving schools operate under a state license governed by rule chapter 1340-01-06. A school needs an approved business location, licensed instructors, liability insurance and inspected cars equipped with a dual brake, emergency flashers and mirrors on both sides. In car instructors also need a Department of Education certification that they carry while teaching.

Ask to see both credentials. By rule, you are owed a written contract with lesson or package pricing, an itemized receipt, and a record of every lesson listing its date, kind and length. Keep them, since they support the hours the instructor certifies.

School rules say students study the manual and get the learner permit before the first lesson in the car. In a separate list, the Department also exempts from licensing any student driving with a certified instructor as part of an approved high school or commercial school course.

While you practice: the manual's four phase plan

Chapter C-4 of the manual describes four phases. Phase one is a big empty lot for the controls. Phase two moves to a calm residential area: intersections, staying centered in the lane, and keeping two seconds behind the car ahead. Phase three is heavier traffic for parallel and hill parking, turns across several lanes, U-turns and quick stops.

Phase four brings fast multi lane highways and interstates, changing weather, night driving in good and poor conditions, and city traffic. The manual mentions research favoring well beyond the required practice, so think of 50 hours as where you start, not where you stop.

• Decide the route and the goal before each session
• Use the same words every time, for example always brake, never sometimes stop
• Pull over to talk about a mistake while it is fresh, instead of lecturing in the middle of a turn
• When you are driving, narrate what you see and do so your teen learns from the passenger seat

Practicing what the examiner scores

The road skills test opens with an eight item check of the car: both brakes, the horn, belts, headlights on high and low, the brake and tail lights, wipers, the defroster and fan, and the inside mirror. Your teen should find and work each one without fumbling.

During the drive the examiner watches preparation, starting, speed control, intersections and turns, sign compliance, scanning, stopping, backing, following distance, signals and sharing the road. Practice straight line backing and pulling into and out of a parking space. Up to six errors passes; seven or more, a traffic violation or a dangerous act means waiting before a retest.

After the license: the family agreement and the first solo year

The manual recommends a family agreement, written or spoken, before solo driving starts. Settle the allowed places and hours, how fuel and insurance get paid for, what shape the car is returned in, and the consequences of a ticket or a dent.

Keep riding along now and then. The restricted intermediate stage still has an overnight curfew starting at 11 and a passenger cap, and reaching 6 points in a year sends your teen, with you, to a Department hearing.