Virginia Teen Drivers Ed: What Parents Need to Plan

The first decision: there is no way around the course

Every Virginia resident under 18 needs both a learner's permit held at least nine months and a Commonwealth-approved driver education program before DMV will license them. Code of Virginia 46.2-335 writes the same rules into law for minors.

Good news, though: most Virginia teens never sit a DMV road test. Their instructor gives the final driving exam, and DMV issues the license off the school's certificate.

Before you enroll: what the program includes

Every session is 50 minutes. Multiply out and your teen spends roughly 30 hours at a desk (36 sessions) and roughly 12 in the training car (seven behind the wheel, seven riding along), finishing with a school-run road skills exam.

Teens under 18 also take the 90 minute parent and teen component. Applicants 18 and older, emancipated minors, and unaccompanied minors not in a parent's custody are exempt from it.

When you compare prices, remember that the state does not set tuition. Ask each school whether its quote covers the classroom periods, the 90 minute session and all 14 in-car periods, since some families end up paying for each piece separately.

• Classroom: 36 periods of 50 minutes
• Driving: 7 periods
• Observation: 7 periods
• Road skills exam: given by the program at the end
• Parent and teen session: 90 minutes, under 18 only

Before you enroll: online and home school options

DMV allows the classroom periods online through a driver training school. The in-car periods still happen in a real car, and no driving session can start until your teen has the permit.

Families who home school under Virginia's home instruction law have another option: teach it yourselves. For the classroom part, pick from the correspondence courses on DMV's home schooler page, each approved by the Superintendent of Public Instruction; DMV publishes separate instructions for the driving part.

Outside home schooling, parents cannot teach the course. Inside it, the steps are: send DMV the HS 1 authorization, cover Module 13 of the state curriculum in the car, then take your teen to DMV for the road skills test, since no school will be giving it.

Permit day: the test and the rules that follow

Fifteen years and six months is the minimum age. The knowledge exam comes in two parts: 10 sign questions with no misses allowed, then 30 general questions with 24 needed. A third failure means your teen must finish the classroom part of an approved course before trying a fourth time.

Who can ride shotgun? Any licensed adult of 21 or more, or a brother, sister or legal guardian with a license who has reached 18, and that person must be alert enough to step in. As for other riders, your teen may have one non-family passenger younger than 18 at most.

Just moved? Fix your address with DMV first. The card comes by mail, and a forwarding order will not redirect it. Once issued, a standard permit can be good for as long as eight years, ending on a birthday.

During the nine months: the 45 hours

Most families never fill out a separate log form. Instead, you as parent, guardian or foster parent sign the driver education completion certificate, adding your license or ID number, to certify that your teen drove 45 or more hours with 15 after sunset and is in good academic standing.

Grades and attendance are part of the deal. If your teen is falling short at school, 46.2-335 says the permit requires your written OK on DMV's forms.

A sample calendar: your teen turns 15 and a half on March 1 and gets the permit that week. Nine months lands on December 1, but the license cannot come before 16 and 3 months, which is June 1 of the next year. That gives you 15 months to spread out 45 hours, so aim for under an hour a week and you will be ahead.

After the license: limits until 18

From midnight until 4 a.m., an under-18 driver stays home unless one of these applies: a work commute, a trip to or from a supervised event (school, church, civic or public), an emergency, or a front-seat passenger who is a licensed parent, an adult acting as parent, or a spouse aged 18 or more.

Then there are friends in the car. Year one: a single rider younger than 21, unless you (licensed) are in the front seat. Year two until 18: as many as three riders younger than 21, but only on the way to or from a school activity, when a licensed adult of 21 or more sits in front, or in an emergency. Brothers, sisters and other relatives are not counted.

• Phones are off limits for every teen driver, handheld or hands-free, unless it is an emergency and the car is lawfully stopped
• Breaking the curfew or passenger rules can lead to a suspension

If your teen gets a ticket

The penalties escalate quickly for minors. Ticket one (any demerit point offense, or a seat belt or child seat violation) sends your teen to a driver improvement clinic, which must be done inside 90 days. Ticket two costs the license for 90 days. Ticket three revokes it for a year, or until the 18th birthday if that is later.

A clinic DMV orders for a teen earns no safe driving points. Code of Virginia 46.2-334.01 does let you, the parent, attend alongside your teen and collect the point benefits on your own record.

Budgeting: fees and insurance

State fees are small. Pay $3 for the permit on top of $4 for every year the credential runs, so a standard eight year card comes to $32 (October 2026 fee chart, DMV 201). Want REAL ID? Add $10 once. Lose the permit and the new one is $2.

The real cost is insurance. Since January 1, 2025, a new or renewed Virginia policy must carry at least 50/100/25 in liability: $50,000 for one person hurt, $100,000 when several are, and $25,000 for damage to property. Get caught driving uninsured and the price is a suspended license, $600 in noncompliance fees and an SR-22 on file for three years.

Call your insurer while your teen is still on the permit. Ask when to add them and whether finishing driver education or good grades lowers the premium; each company sets its own discounts, Virginia law does not.

If you are moving to Virginia

Time on another state's learner's permit counts toward the nine months. Driver education taken elsewhere must show at least 30 classroom hours and six in-car hours.

Already licensed in the old state? Between 16 and 3 months and 17, your teen can trade that card for a Virginia one, provided the course was completed while you lived there. Missing the paperwork? DMV can hand out a temporary license good for six months, enough time to track down the certificate or finish a Virginia course.

Deadlines for the whole household: cars need Virginia titles and registration inside a month of becoming residents, and each licensed adult gets two months to convert. Teens still on a permit just bring it in; DMV credits every month already served.