Florida teen driver requirements: permits, hours, and restrictions

Fifteen, and what the learner's license actually requires

Section 322.1615, Florida Statutes, sets four conditions for a learner's license. You must be at least fifteen. You must have passed the written examination. You must have passed the vision and hearing examination given under section 322.12. And you must have satisfactorily completed a driver education course approved by the department which meets or exceeds the Department of Education's Driver Education and Traffic Safety classroom course, catalog number 1900300. FLHSMV labels that course DETS on its teen pages and TLSAE elsewhere; it is the same requirement wearing two names.

The vision and hearing screening is the one piece that cannot be done remotely: FLHSMV states plainly that testing is conducted in a service center. So even a teenager who takes the written exam online still has an office visit ahead, and that visit is where the signed forms are collected and the learner's license is printed.

The signature, and the liability that comes attached to it

An unmarried applicant under eighteen needs a parent or legal guardian to sign the license application — Form 71142, the Parental Consent Form — in front of a driver license examiner or a notary public. Stepparents may not sign unless they have legally adopted the child. A married minor shows a certified marriage certificate instead; an emancipated minor shows a certified court order. If the teenager is in licensed out-of-home care, a foster parent, an authorized representative of a residential group home, or a guardian ad litem may sign.

What that signature commits an adult to is not symbolic. Section 322.09, Florida Statutes, imputes any negligence or willful misconduct of a driver under eighteen to the person who signed the application, and makes that person jointly and severally liable with the minor for damages. In plain terms, a lawsuit arising from the teenager's crash can name the signer. The statute carves out one group: a caregiver, group home representative, caseworker or guardian ad litem who signs for a minor in out-of-home care does not assume that liability.

The same signature can be withdrawn. The adult who signed may rescind responsibility, and the minor's license is then canceled. It is done by letter to the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, Bureau of Motorist Compliance, Division of Motorist Services, 2900 Apalachee Parkway, Tallahassee, FL 32399-0575, or by fax to (850) 617-3939, and the letter has to carry the minor driver's full name, date of birth and driver license number.

The exam a Florida teenager can sit at the kitchen table

This is the privilege that belongs to minors alone. Anyone under the age of eighteen may take the written exam online through an approved third-party administrator; an adult may not. That inversion — the youngest applicants get the most flexible testing channel — exists because the statute builds the parent into the process as a proctor rather than leaving the applicant unsupervised.

Section 322.56(8), Florida Statutes, spells out the machinery. Before the exam starts, the parent, guardian or other responsible adult gives the third-party administrator their own driver license number and certifies that they will monitor the applicant throughout. The program itself has to ask personal questions before the exam and require the applicant to answer them during it, as a test-security measure against someone else sitting in the chair. Afterward, before a learner's license can be issued, the same adult certifies to the department that they did monitor the exam. That final certification is Form 71144, and it is signed in the presence of a driver license examiner or notarized if the adult will not be at the office.

The alternative inside school hours is the Driver Education Licensing Assistance Program. Many high school driver education classes are authorized to give the written exam, and the driver education teacher enters passing results into FLHSMV's test records directly. Whichever channel the family uses, the family brings no score sheet to the counter — results arrive electronically and are visible at every driver license office. And whichever channel the family uses, the random mandatory re-test under section 322.56(3) can still land: a teenager who passed with a third-party administrator or through a school program may be called back to sit it again in an office, free, with no notice, and the license waits until they do.

Clock one: daylight, then 10 p.m., and an adult in the right-hand seat

For the first three months after the learner's license is issued, driving is limited to daylight hours. After three months the window extends to 10 p.m. Section 322.1615 sets both, and it sets the supervision rule that runs underneath them: the holder must be accompanied at all times by a driver who holds a valid license for the type of vehicle, is at least 21 years old, and occupies the closest seat to the right of the driver. Not the back seat, not following in another car — the front passenger seat, always.

Families ask about the school-run exception every year, and Florida does not have one. Asked directly whether a teenager can drive to and from school without an adult in the car on a learner's license, FLHSMV answers that with a learner's license you must only drive with a licensed driver who is at least 21 years old and occupies the front passenger seat at all times. Breaking either rule carries the civil penalty imposed for a moving violation under chapter 318.

Twelve months, or your eighteenth birthday — whichever lands first

Section 322.05, Florida Statutes, requires an applicant between sixteen and eighteen to have held a valid learner's license for at least twelve months with no moving traffic convictions. FLHSMV states the same thing with a clause that changes the arithmetic for late starters: hold the learner's license for at least one year, or reach age eighteen, whichever comes first. A seventeen-year-old who begins in the autumn is not held to a full year — they are held to their birthday. That carve-out matters, because it means the calculation for a teenager who starts late is not twelve months but however many are left.

A ticket resets that clock rather than pausing it. FLHSMV's answer is blunt: a customer convicted of a moving violation will not be able to obtain their driver license for one year from the conviction date. Section 322.161 says the same in statutory terms — the required holding period is extended for one year from the date of conviction, or until eighteen, whichever happens first. There is one escape hatch, in section 322.05: a single moving traffic conviction does not disqualify you if you elect to attend a traffic driving school and adjudication is withheld under section 318.14.

Fifty hours, ten in the dark, and a form that cannot be used in court

Before the driving test, a parent, legal guardian or responsible adult over 21 completes the Certification of Minor Driving Experience, Form 71143, certifying that the applicant has accompanied them for a total of not less than 50 hours of behind-the-wheel experience, of which not less than 10 hours were at night. FLHSMV publishes a Practice Log Sheet for tracking it, and the form is signed in front of a driver license examiner or notarized if the certifying adult will not be present.

Section 322.05 attaches an unusual pair of sentences to that requirement, and they are worth reading before anyone worries about signing. The subsection is not intended to create a private cause of action as a result of the certification, and the certification is inadmissible for any purpose in any civil proceeding. Florida wanted parents to certify honestly without handing a plaintiff's lawyer a signed document, so the log is a licensing instrument and nothing else. That is a narrower shield than it sounds — it protects the certification, not the signature on the application, which section 322.09 makes the source of joint liability.

Clock two: sixteen means 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., and nobody counts heads

With a Class E license in hand, a sixteen-year-old may drive unaccompanied only between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m. Outside that window they need a licensed driver at least 21 years old in the closest seat to the right, or they must be driving directly to or from work. That work exemption is broad and requires no permit or note — the statute simply excludes it.

Here is what Florida does not do, and it separates the state from almost every other graduated licensing scheme in the country: it never limits passengers. Not the number, not their ages, not for the first six months, not at all. A newly licensed sixteen-year-old in Florida may legally drive four classmates to a game at four in the afternoon. Whether that is wise is a separate question — the crash research that produced passenger caps elsewhere did not stop at the Georgia line — but it is not illegal, and any list of Florida restrictions that mentions a passenger rule has confused Florida with somewhere else.

The penalty structure is unusual too. Section 322.16 makes driving in violation of the curfew a moving violation, fined in accordance with chapter 318 — and the same section explicitly withholds the curfew from the department's power to suspend or revoke a license for breaching a restriction. Breaking curfew is a ticket with points behind it, not an automatic suspension. Points are how it eventually costs the license anyway.

Clock three: seventeen widens the window to 5 a.m. and 1 a.m.

On the seventeenth birthday the restriction changes rather than lifting. Section 322.16 permits a seventeen-year-old to drive unaccompanied between 5 a.m. and 1 a.m., with the same two escapes as before: a licensed driver 21 or older in the right-hand seat, or driving directly to or from work. That is a four-hour prohibition instead of a seven-hour one — an extra hour in the morning and two more at night.

At eighteen the clocks stop entirely. FLHSMV puts it in one line: at eighteen with a driver license, driving is allowed at all hours without an adult in the car. Nothing else changes on the card and no new test is required — the graduated structure simply expires with the birthday.

Six points and the Business Purposes Only card

Florida runs a points threshold for minors that adults do not face. If a driver under eighteen accumulates six points on their record within any twelve-month period, the license is automatically restricted to Business Purposes Only for twelve months, or until they turn eighteen, whichever happens first. The handbook defines that restriction more broadly than its name suggests: driving necessary to maintain livelihood, which covers commuting, on-the-job driving, educational purposes, church, and medical purposes. There is no hearing to lose and no discretion to appeal to — it is automatic on the sixth point.

The restriction also compounds. Every additional point earned during the restricted period extends it by another 90 days. A teenager who keeps driving the way that earned the first six points can push a twelve-month restriction well past a year, and each extension is calculated per point rather than per ticket.

Zero tolerance, tobacco, and the attendance rule

Section 322.2616, Florida Statutes, suspends the license of any driver under 21 with a blood alcohol level of .02 percent or more, immediately and for six months. A second offense costs a year. Refusing the test costs twelve months for a first refusal and eighteen for a second — worse than the reading itself would have been. That threshold is roughly one drink, and it applies to a seventeen-year-old exactly as it applies to a twenty-year-old.

Two rules have nothing to do with driving at all. A minor convicted of possessing tobacco or nicotine products has their learner's license revoked for a minimum of 30 days under section 322.056. And under section 322.091, a minor who is not in compliance with school attendance can have the driving privilege suspended, or be ineligible to obtain a license, until they provide proof of attending school for 30 consecutive days. Florida hangs the license on the report card and on the smoke break, and both are enforced through FLHSMV rather than the school.

The bumper sticker program the state keeps a register for

Florida maintains a formal register of youthful driver monitoring services — the teenage version of the "How's my driving?" sticker on the back of a delivery truck. A registered service supplies a bumper sticker or magnet carrying a toll-free number and a unique identifying number, members of the public call in what they see, and the service passes the report to the parent or guardian. The statutory basis is section 318.1435.

FLHSMV is careful about what the register means. The listing is a courtesy, it says, not an endorsement or recommendation, and the businesses are not monitored for performance quality. It is also, as of this review, empty: FLHSMV's page states that there are currently no services registered. A parent who wants this has to arrange it privately, and no state vetting comes with it.

The last visit, and what it costs to finish

Once the twelve months are behind you and the driving test is passed, the closing visit is short. Bring the notarized Certification of Minor Driving Experience and go into a local service center with the identification documents — if you have not previously provided them. That conditional is the whole point: the documents handed over for the learner's license a year earlier still count, so most families arrive with a single form.

The upgrade itself is free. There is no fee for customers who surrender their learner's license and do not require a name or address change. Keep the learner's card, or arrive needing a new address on the record, and it becomes a $25 replacement instead. A $6.25 service fee applies to any driver license transaction completed in a tax collector office, which in much of Florida is where the transaction happens.

Florida licensing — frequently asked questions

Official sources

• FLHSMV — Teen licensing, GDL laws and driving curfews
• FLHSMV — Teen licensing frequently asked questions
• FLHSMV — Required forms for teens (71142, 71143, 71144)
• FLHSMV — Traffic laws for Florida teens
• FLHSMV — Youthful driver monitoring services
• FLHSMV — Teen licensing requirements (official Spanish page)
• Florida Statutes § 322.1615 — Learner's driver license
• Florida Statutes § 322.16 — License restrictions and curfews
• Florida Statutes § 322.05 — Holding period and supervised hours
• Florida Statutes § 322.09 — Minors' applications and parental liability
• Florida Statutes § 322.56 — Online exams and third-party proctoring

Checked against official state sources on July 28, 2026.