Checklist for Licensing Your New Teen Driver

This post is part of a sponsored series, all opinions are mine. 

If you have a teen driver in your family, you probably have more anxiety than certainty with the upcoming freedom. I remember when I turned 16, I had my driver’s test scheduled for bright and early in the morning. It was on the calendar for months, I was so excited. My parents on the other hand, were not so excited. Not only would they need to add me to their insurance plan, but they were also going to have the stress of having a newly licensed driver and the worries that come with it.

Besides the stress and worry behind having a new teen driver, you might be trying to sort out everything else that goes along with it. I teamed up with one of my favorite Oregon Dodge dealer to bring you a checklist for licensing your new teen driver. So grab your notebook and take some notes if you need, I hope you find this information helpful!

Teen Driver Checklist for Licensing

First off, if I threw you a curve ball and you thought this post was going to cover what your teen should practice before taking their driver’s test, you can find those types of lists here so don’t worry, I got you covered.

Now, let’s get to the topic at hand. What does your teen need to do before they can take their driver’s license test? Typically the process goes something like this:

Sign up for a Driver’s Education course. This is the best way your teen can study for the driving knowledge exam, plus here in Minnesota you need 30 hours of classroom instruction before you can proceed to the next step. You can typically just google “drivers ed + (your town name and state)” and a few options will come up. You can also ask around to parents who have kids who have gone through the licensing process before and word of mouth is usually a great place to find good referrals.

Take the driving knowledge exam and pass (typically 70% or higher) to obtain driver’s permit. I’m sure that’s pretty self explanatory but this is generally half of obtaining your driver’s license. You must pass the written test first and some states (including Minnesota) require you to have this permit for at least 6 months before you can take the driving test.

Teens must log at least 40 hours of driving time, with at least 15 hours at night. There are rules and regulations around this including a minimum age of the supervising passenger and particular times when that might change. The AAA website has a great write-up of these regulations in case you need more clarification.

Apply for a provisional license and pass the road test. This provisional license usually will last for 12 months, after that time (or if you are 18 years old), you can apply for the full license.

The steps might seem a little daunting at first, but it’s nice reassurance that other drivers on the road have had the proper training before driving on the freeway next to you. Just make sure you start early enough to give yourself (and your child) enough time to complete the tasks with plenty of time left to have your driver’s permit for those 6 months before you can take the road test.

Happy driving!