Vermont Teen Drivers Ed: A Parent's Timeline

The first question: can your teen skip the course?

Not if the goal is a license before 18. Vermont DMV requires every 16 and 17 year old to pass a state-approved driver education and training course first, and its Driver Education page applies the course to all license applicants under 18.

Approval comes from one of two places. The Vermont Agency of Education oversees high school programs, and DMV licenses the private driver training schools.

Before you enroll: what a Vermont course must include

Every teen course in Vermont meets the same floor: no less than 30 hours of classroom work, 6 hours driving with the instructor, and 6 hours in the car observing. Pass, and your teen receives a Driver Education Certificate, which DMV describes as wallet-sized.

There is a paperwork step that can hold up the road test. The instructor has to enter your teen's completion in the Driver Education Certification Service before an exam can be booked, so ask the school when it plans to submit.

Hoping for an online option? DMV does not list a fully online path for teens. The routes it names are high school programs and DMV-licensed schools, and the in-car and observation hours need an instructor in a real car. If someone advertises an online Vermont course, check with the DMV Driver Training office before paying; DMV's directory lists licensed schools by county with the courses each one teaches.

• Classroom: 30 hours
• Behind the wheel: 6 hours
• Observation: 6 hours
• Completion: recorded by the instructor in DMV's certification system

Permit day: papers to gather

DMV looks for four kinds of proof on a new credential: who you are and when you were born, your Social Security information, Vermont residency and current address, and lawful status, the last of which matters only for a Real ID or enhanced license. Most teens cover identity with a certified birth certificate or a valid passport, and Social Security with the card itself or a letter from SSA.

For the address, DMV normally wants two envelopes delivered to your street address in your teen's current name. No mail delivery at the house? Then two documents such as a lease, a power bill or the property tax bill can stand in, and a teen who simply never gets mail can fill out a Vermont Residency Certification. Because the permit test is now online, the paper receipt you get after passing and paying acts as a temporary permit for 90 days while the card is in the mail.

During the permit year: the rules of the road

Testing opens at 15. The manual describes 20 multiple choice questions with 16 correct needed, and a failed attempt means waiting at least a day. With the permit, your teen may drive anywhere in Vermont, day or night, as long as a qualified supervisor sits in the front seat.

The front-seat rider can be you or another guardian, a driver education instructor, or really any adult who has reached 25. Whoever it is needs a valid license and must be sober and alert. If you plan a trip across the border, check that state's permit rules first.

During the permit year: building the 40 hours

Vermont's 40 practice hours sit on top of the course's 6 in-car hours; they are not counted from them. Ten or more must be at night, which DMV defines as from 30 minutes after sunset until 30 minutes before sunrise.

Every hour needs an approved supervisor beside your teen, and the proof goes in with the junior license application. Picture a teen who gets the permit in September at 15. A year of permits gives you fall leaves, a full winter and mud season, so plan the 40 hours to include icy back roads, rural two-lane highways and busy town centers, all of which the course only touches on.

On road test day

Bring a clean car in good mechanical shape with a current inspection sticker, plus proof of insurance and registration. You can book with DMV, or, if your teen's high school instructor is certified to test, the exam may happen at school.

A student who passes a school-given exam receives a Driver Education Examination Certificate. Your teen then takes it to a DMV office along with the permit, a signed application, the fees and proof of residency.

After the license: passenger and job limits

In the first three months, a junior driver may drive alone or with a licensed, unimpaired parent, guardian, driver education instructor or person 25 or older. If one of those supervisors is aboard, other passengers are fine up to the number of seat belts.

Starting in month four, brothers, sisters and other immediate family can ride along as well, and once the license is six months old the passenger rule falls away entirely. Jobs follow a different clock. No driving as part of a job, paid or for an employer, until the first anniversary of the license or the 18th birthday, whichever is earlier. Driving paying passengers is off limits for the life of the junior license.

If something goes wrong: recalls

DMV treats the permit and the junior license as provisional, which means it can recall either one. A 90 day recall follows carrying passengers for hire, driving for an employer, a passenger violation, or points: one 3 point speeding ticket or 6 points in total.

A diversion or reparative board recommendation leads to a 30 day recall, and the manual lists 30 days for a junior operator caught texting. Any recall also restarts the clean record clock your teen needs to move up a stage.

Any recall can be challenged at a hearing. When the recall period ends and the card comes back, the manual says there is nothing to pay. As parent or guardian, you can also withdraw your permission, which allows DMV to take the license. Moving from junior to full Driver's License at 18 takes six months with no recall, suspension or revocation, counted from any reinstatement date.

What it costs

DMV's October 2026 fees: $24 for the learner's permit (two years), $39 for the permit knowledge test, $23 for the road test and $39 for the junior license (two years). Each school sets its own tuition.

If your family is moving to Vermont

Bring the old course paperwork. Vermont honors a course from elsewhere if it combined classroom and in-car instruction and the teacher was certified or licensed. Some certificates are issued by private schools rather than a state agency; in that case you also need a letter, printed on that state's letterhead, describing the program and what it required.

If your teen already holds a junior license from the old state, DMV's site says no new tests and no 40 hour certification are needed when switching, though the driver education proof is still required. Going the other way, a teen living over the line who takes a Vermont course can be issued a Vermont permit once the school writes a letter.

Be aware the two official sources disagree. The website, checked in October 2026, says junior licenses "now" transfer like any standard license with no retest, but the Driver's Manual dated July 2024 still lists vision, written and road exams for transferring juniors. That "now" suggests the policy changed after the manual went to print, so the website is the better guide; still, have your teen ready to test in case the office goes by the manual. What both agree on: if the junior license from the old state is under six months old, Vermont's graduated limits keep applying. A quick call to DMV (802-828-2000) before you go will settle which version your office follows.