Wyoming Behind the Wheel: Practice Hours and In Car Lessons

Before you start: the 50 hour rule

The requirement lives in W.S. 31-7-110(g). A 16 year old needs 50 hours of actual driving, with night driving making up 10 or more, before applying for an intermediate permit. No certification from a parent or guardian, no permit.

Drivers ed does not change the number. Driving time in a course can be counted, but it will not come close to 50 on its own, so expect most of the hours to happen in the family car.

Here is a simple plan. If your daughter gets her permit on her 15th birthday, she has a full year before she can apply at 16. Two hours a week for 25 weeks covers the 50, and starting in autumn means the 10 night hours come easily because Wyoming winter evenings get dark by late afternoon.

Who can ride along

A supervisor has to be 18 or older, licensed for the class of vehicle being driven, fit and able to take over, and seated beside the driver. Parents, grandparents, older siblings, neighbors or an employer can all qualify. Only a parent or legal guardian, though, can sign the final certification.

Choose supervisors who will coach. An adult who calmly points out hazards and asks questions does far more for a new driver than one looking at a phone.

Keeping the log and signing the form

Two forms on WYDOT's General Forms page matter here. The first, the Behind-the-Wheel Driving Log, is optional; it is just a place to track drives. The second, FSGDL-01, the Behind-the-Wheel Driving Certification, is required. It records day hours, night hours and the total, and you sign a statement that your teen drove 50 hours, 10 or more of them at night.

Sign it when the hours have actually happened. You are making a signed statement to the state. An honest log also tells you whether your teen has had enough driving at dusk, in snow and on the interstate.

• Optional: the Behind-the-Wheel Driving Log
• Required: FSGDL-01, signed by a parent or guardian
• Bring the signed form, along with REAL ID documents, to the exam office for the intermediate permit

What the course adds in the car

Chapter 39 sets the minimum for approved courses: 30 classroom hours, 6 or more clock hours driving and, since July 2007, 6 or more hours observing from inside the car. Every on street lesson carries at least two students, so one watches while the other drives.

Programs can swap part of the road time for a driving range or a simulator. On a range with several cars, two hours equal one hour behind the wheel, and each student still needs at least two hours on the street. In a simulator, four hours equal one road hour, and each student still needs three real road hours or more. The lessons themselves run from inspecting the vehicle and starting it, through steering, lane position, following distance and braking, to emergency responses and securing the car.

Parent based and home based programs

A parent or legal guardian can teach their own child through a parent based program, with two conditions: the student's high school must not offer driver education, and the Department of Education must approve the program. Home based programs have to meet the same minimum hours.

Under today's rule, either kind of program may deliver the 30 classroom hours through a computer based course, and a parent or guardian may log the observation time. Before you start, look up the program on the approved list and confirm its approval number. A certificate from a provider that is not approved will do nothing for you at the exam office.

The 2026 Chapter 39 rewrite

A proposed new Chapter 39 came out from the Department of Education in May 2026, with comments accepted until June 26. It keeps 30 classroom hours and frames in car instruction as 12 hours, 6 observing and 6 driving, with two students in the vehicle.

Other changes in the draft: electronic signatures would be allowed on completion certificates, and the curriculum would add roundabouts and multiple point turns. As of October 2026 we were unable to confirm which version was adopted, so ask your program which rule governs its approval.

On test day: the skills test or a waiver

The intermediate permit requires a passed skills test, given by Driver Services or by an approved drivers ed program, in a car you supply that is registered and insured. Expect intersections, signals and ordinary traffic. Any traffic law broken during the test is an automatic fail.

With an approved certificate, the examiner may waive the test; the WYDOT manual honors the card for no more than two years. There is no guarantee of a waiver, and any student who has previously failed a state test has to retest with a state examiner.

Practice that suits Wyoming roads

Use the 50 hours to cover what your teen will face alone: wildlife at dusk, gravel county roads, hard crosswinds, the first snow of the season and long stretches of interstate.

Teach respect for road closures from the start. Driving around closed gates and barriers on a closed highway carries $570 bail under the 2026 statewide schedule, and those closures exist because conditions can become deadly quickly.