Virginia Behind-the-Wheel Training, Explained for Families

During the course: what happens in the car

A driving period is 50 minutes behind the wheel with an instructor. An observation period is 50 minutes in the back seat watching another student and listening to the instructor's running commentary, which is why schools usually pair students up.

The final road skills exam is given by the school, not DMV. Pass it and the classroom part, and your teen earns the completion certificate that most Virginia teens use instead of a DMV road test.

• Driving: seven periods with a certified instructor
• Observing: seven periods in the training car
• The school's own road skills exam at the end
• The school, not your family, sends the certificate to DMV

At home: who may ride with your teen

The supervisor needs a valid license and must be 21 or older; a legal guardian or a sibling can do it at 18. Whoever it is must be awake, sober and ready to take control, and stays in the front passenger seat the whole drive.

Keep the passenger rule in mind as well. Under 18, a permit holder may have only one non-family passenger under 18. Filling the car with friends for a practice run can break the rule even with you sitting up front.

At home: making the 45 hours useful

These hours come on top of the 14 school periods, and 15 or more must be after sunset, which is easiest in winter when evenings come early. Most families never hand in a log, but you sign a legal certification, so a written record protects you.

Think about the first solo drives and rehearse them: merging onto a busy interstate, country roads with no center line, wet pavement, the 5 p.m. crush, tight parking lots. For structure, download the parent and teen guide on the Department of Education's driver ed page; it breaks the 45 hours into staged lessons.

A sample pace: two 45 minute drives a week add up to 45 hours in about 30 weeks, comfortably inside the nine month permit period.

If you home school: getting authorized

If your family home schools under 22.1-254 or 22.1-254.1, you may handle the in-car instruction. Each child gets an individual HS 1. Mail it, with the original classroom certificate and evidence that you home school, to DMV's Driver Training Work Center at P.O. Box 27412, Richmond, VA 23269-0001.

The parent doing the teaching must hold a current Virginia license, have a record free of manslaughter convictions for the last 11 years, and accept DMV keeping an eye on that record until the teen's road test is passed. As home school evidence, a copy of your notice of intent to the superintendent works, as does the school division's acknowledgment letter.

Four kinds of classroom proof work, originals only: the DEC-1 that public and private schools issue, the DTS-36 from a commercial driving school, the completion certificate of a licensed school's online class, or the certificate from an approved home school correspondence course.

If you home school: teaching the lessons

Wait for DMV's Letter of Authorization, then teach from Module 13, the in-car unit of the state curriculum (the Department of Education has it online). Plan 14 sessions of 50 minutes: seven with your teen driving, together totaling 50 miles or more, and seven observing. In a single 24 hour stretch, schedule at most one of each.

Track skills as you go on form CSMA 19, the observation record for in-car maneuvers, and still complete the 45 practice hours, 15 of them after dark. Test day comes once your teen is 16 and 3 months with nine permit months behind them: bring the authorization letter and the finished CSMA 19 to DMV.

Passing produces an HS 2, the home school version of the driver training certificate; with the permit, it lets your teen drive until the license arrives. Three failed knowledge or road tests mean a DMV-approved driver education course before a fourth attempt.

For adults practicing without a course

An adult of 21 or more can bypass the course with two months on the permit and a completed CSMA 19, officially the In-Car Maneuvers Observation Record (some DMV pages call it a Behind-the-Wheel Checklist), signed by the licensed person who supervised. On test day at DMV, hand over that record together with a CSMA 140.

From January 1, 2027, applicants 18 through 20 lose that option and must take the full driver education program, in-car periods included, during a 90 day permit hold.

If the road test is at DMV

Two groups still test with a DMV examiner: parent-taught home schoolers and course-free adults. The exam is in English, on real streets, in a car you supply. Closed-course testing ended after September 29, 2024. A translator 18 or older with a valid U.S. license may come along in the back seat.

Before you go, walk around the car: plates on, inspection current, registration card in the glove box. Then test the equipment, from lights, turn signals and horn to brakes, belts, mirrors and the speedometer. A rental is allowed only if you are an authorized driver on the agreement. After a first or second failure, wait two days; after a third, complete the in-vehicle part of a driver education course first.