Indiana teen driving laws: permits, curfew, and passenger rules

Indiana lets a fifteen-year-old hold a learner's permit, but only through a driver training school — the Indiana BMV wants a Certificate of Driver Education from the provider before it will issue one that early. That single condition shapes everything a family does next: which classroom, which behind-the-wheel provider, who is allowed in the front passenger seat, and whether the road test happens at the school or at a branch. Two signatures and one notice sit along the way. An adult signs a sworn statement of financial liability that Indiana statute lets them later withdraw, taking the minor's credential with it. A parent or legal guardian signs the fifty-hour log before the BMV will read it. And a school administrator or principal can send a notification that requires the BMV to suspend a juvenile's driving privileges. This guide is written for the adult driving to the classroom and the teenager counting days.

Practice the Indiana written test

Online theory is allowed; the six road hours are not

The BMV's driver-education page defines the program in two numbers: 30 hours of classroom training and six hours of behind-the-wheel training with a BMV-licensed driver training school. Online training is available as an alternative to the classroom half, but the page is direct that students will still be responsible for the six behind-the-wheel hours. You may complete online training before enrolling at a licensed school for the driving half — the page adds one warning worth heeding, which is to first confirm that your preferred driver training school will accept the online program you have selected.

Fifteen is the age that opens the course. The driver-education FAQ says a child must be 15 years of age before enrolling in either the theoretical or the behind-the-wheel phase. The same page's student FAQ sets out what has to be true before a teenager drives with a parent: you must be 15, you must have completed the 30 hours of the theoretical or online portion of driver education, you must have a learner's permit, and you must be enrolled in a BMV-licensed behind-the-wheel program. The page adds a line for older students — those 16 and over must have a valid learner's permit.

The certificate that unlocks a permit at 15 is a specific document with a specific date on it, and the two BMV documents that describe it use slightly different names — the learner's-permit page calls it a Certificate of Driver Education from a course provider, the manual a Certificate of Driver Education Enrollment from the driver training school. Both describe the same proof of enrollment. The manual says that certificate must be dated no earlier than three weeks prior to the start of the class, and that the online course certificate of completion for theoretical training is not an acceptable document for this. Families sometimes discover that distinction at the counter: finishing an online theory course is not the same paper as being enrolled with a school, and only the second one gets a fifteen-year-old a permit.

Four situations, four different lists of who may ride along

The learner's-permit page does not give one supervision rule. It gives four, keyed to the teenager's circumstances, and the manual repeats them. If you are under 16 and enrolled in a driver education program, you may practice with a licensed driving instructor or a certified driver rehabilitation specialist approved by the BMV and working in a rehabilitation program, seated in the front passenger seat. You may also practice with a licensed driver who has valid driving privileges and is 25 or older and who is related to you by blood, marriage or legal status, or with your spouse if licensed and at least 21 — front passenger seat in every case.

If you are under 18 and not enrolled in a driver education program, the list is the 25-or-older relative or the 21-or-older licensed spouse, plus a licensed instructor from a driver training school or a certified rehabilitation specialist recognized by the BMV and employed through a rehabilitation program. If you are under 18 and under the care and supervision of the Department of Child Services, the list changes shape: the 25-or-older relative, or a licensed driver who is 25 or older and approved by the Department of Child Services. And if you are 18 or older, it narrows to two — a licensed driver with valid driving privileges who is at least 25, or your spouse if licensed and at least 21.

The limb families skip is the relation requirement. For a minor who is not in the Department of Child Services category, the 25-year-old in the passenger seat has to be related to the teenager by blood, marriage or legal status — a neighbor with a spotless record and thirty years of driving does not qualify on those grounds alone. The instructor and rehabilitation-specialist options exist precisely because the relative list is narrow. The adult list at 18 and over drops the relation condition entirely, which is why an adult learner's supervision rules read as simpler than a sixteen-year-old's.

A failing grade in either half of the course sends you back to the branch

The point of enrolling with a participating school is that the road test can happen there. The manual says a learner's-permit holder attending a BMV-licensed driver training school that participates in the BMV's driving skills test program may take the driving skills exam with the school after successfully completing the course, and the driver-education page notes that licensed schools can now administer the skills test to any individual 16 years old and over with a valid learner's permit. The probationary-license page frames the same option from the teenager's side: with a permit and an approved driver education program, you may take the driving test with your behind-the-wheel provider after the program or when you apply at a branch.

Two things take that option away, and the probationary-license page numbers the first one. You must take the driving test at a branch if you receive a failing grade of 79 percent or below in either classroom instruction or behind-the-wheel training in your driver education program, or if your behind-the-wheel provider cannot administer the driving test as part of the BMV's driving skills test waiver program. Note the word either: a strong classroom score does not offset a failing grade on the driving half, or the reverse. The manual states the same two situations in its own words, as a failing grade in either portion of the course and a school that does not participate in the program.

A pass earned at the school has a shelf life tied to the permit, not to the calendar. The manual says that if you successfully complete a driving skills exam administered by the driver training school, the results remain valid until your learner's permit expires — and permits are valid two years from the date of issuance. For a teenager who tests at 16 and then waits on the 180-day holding period or an age gate, that pairing is worth watching: let the permit lapse and the passed skills result lapses with it, and a permit expired more than 180 days brings back the knowledge exam as well.

The adult who signs, in the order the statute names

An applicant under 18 does not get a permit or a probationary license until an adult signs a sworn or affirmed statement of financial liability, in person at a BMV branch. Indiana does not leave the choice of adult open: the driver's-license page and the manual both set out the order of preference in IC 9-24-9-3. First, the parent having custody of the minor applicant, or a designee that custodial parent specifies. Second, the noncustodial parent as defined in IC 31-9-2-83, or a designee that noncustodial parent specifies. Third, the guardian having custody. And fourth, in the absence of anyone described in the first three, any other adult who is willing to assume the obligations imposed by IC 9-24-9.

Signing is not a formality. The manual says the adult swears or affirms financial liability and agrees to be responsible jointly and severally with the minor applicant for all damage that may result from operating a motor vehicle, and the learner's-permit page puts the same duty in plainer words: the adult agrees to be responsible with the minor for any injury or damage the minor causes by reason of operating a motor vehicle, if the minor is liable in damages. The identity requirement is stricter here than elsewhere. The driver's-license page says the co-signer must present a valid form of identification including a U.S. government-issued photo identification card that displays a United States address, that any form of identity must be a U.S. government-issued identity document, and that the BMV does not accept Matricula Consular cards for purposes of financial liability.

The signature can be taken back, and taking it back is not a warning shot. The manual says that if at any time, and for any reason, the adult who co-signs wishes to withdraw financial liability for the minor, the adult can file State Form 55834, the Written Request to Cancel Financial Liability, available on the BMV's website — and that a written request to withdraw financial liability will cancel the minor's learner's permit or driver's license under IC 9-24-9-4(b). The way back is to apply for an amended learner's permit with a new person signing for financial liability. Families in the middle of a disagreement should know that filing the form ends the credential rather than suspending it.

One group is exempt from the signature and picks up a different obligation instead. The manual says the signature of an adult is not required if the applicant is under 18 and can provide proof of being under the care and supervision of the Department of Child Services — but that a DCS applicant applying for a driver's license or learner's permit must also provide proof of a motor vehicle insurance policy that meets the minimum liability standards set forth in Indiana law. In other words, the exemption swaps a co-signer for a policy.

Restrictions that lift in two stages, and one that never does

The probationary-license page groups the restrictions under four headings, and the hours are the ones a family plans around. Stage one is blunt: for the first 180 days after getting your license, you may not drive between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. Stage two begins when those 180 days are up and runs until the driver turns 18. In that stage you may not drive Saturday and Sunday between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m., Sunday through Thursday after 11 p.m., or Monday through Friday before 5 a.m. Read the second and third of those together and a school-night curfew of 11 p.m. sits alongside a 5 a.m. floor on weekday mornings.

The exceptions are four, and each one is a full limb rather than a category. You may drive during those hours if you are traveling to or from work — the manual writes it as lawful employment — or to or from a school-sanctioned activity, or to or from a religious event. The fourth is a person rather than a destination: you may drive at any time if you are accompanied in the front seat by an individual with valid driving privileges who is at least 25 years of age, or by a spouse with valid driving privileges who is at least 21. Drop any one of the four and the rule reads more tightly than Indiana wrote it.

Passengers run on the same 180-day clock. The probationary-license page says you may not drive with passengers for 180 days after getting your probationary license unless you are accompanied in the front seat by a licensed instructor, an individual with a valid driver's license who is at least 25, or a spouse who is at least 21. The manual writes the instructor limb as an individual who holds a driver training school instructor license. Then comes the family carve-out: you may transport your child, stepchild, sibling, step or half sibling, or spouse without another accompanying individual. The probationary page attaches a condition to that carve-out which is easy to read past — it applies during the hours allowed by law, so the curfew above still binds a sibling run.

Two restrictions do not run on a clock at all. The probationary-license page says you may not use any type of telecommunication device while driving except to make emergency 911 calls, and the manual states the same rule under its own probationary heading, phrased as a prohibition on all drivers, including probationary driver's license holders, against using any form of telecommunications device unless it is being used to make a 911 emergency call. A few pages later the same manual gives a narrower statewide rule: Indiana law prohibits using a telecommunications device to type, transmit or read a text or an email message while operating a moving motor vehicle unless the device is used with hands-free or voice-operated technology, or for a 911 call. The two passages do not line up on whether hands-free is allowed, and only the probationary page settles it for a probationary driver: 911 calls only. The fourth heading on that page is not about driving at all: a probationary driver will not qualify for court diversion programs.

Twenty-five, fifty and twenty-five, before the keys change hands

Chapter 5 of the Driver's Manual states Indiana's minimum insurance standard as $25,000 for bodily injury to, or the death of, one individual; $50,000 for bodily injury to, or the death of, two or more people in any one accident; and $25,000 for property damage in any one accident — commonly written 25/50/25. Those figures are printed in that chapter of the manual, so check the current edition before you rely on them when you shop for a policy. The chapter also says a person may not operate a motor vehicle in Indiana if financial responsibility is not in effect for the vehicle, or the person is not otherwise insured to operate it.

The BMV can ask a household to prove it, and the manual lists four situations that trigger a notice: an auto accident; a pointable moving traffic violation within one year of receiving two other pointable moving traffic violations; a serious traffic violation such as a misdemeanor or felony; and any pointable moving traffic violation by a driver who was previously suspended for failing to provide proof of financial responsibility. The answer is a Certificate of Compliance, which your insurer must submit electronically. The manual gives the deadline plainly: the certificate must be received electronically from your insurer and processed by the BMV within 90 days of the BMV mailing its request, or driving privileges are suspended.

The cost of getting this wrong is where a teenager's mistake becomes a household expense. Chapter 5 says reinstatement fees are $250 for a first no-insurance suspension, $500 for a second, and $1,000 for a third and subsequent one that occurred after Jan. 1, 2015, and that for suspensions before that date the fees are $150, $225 and $300. It also describes a way out: a driver may reinstate without paying a no-insurance reinstatement fee by having their insurance provider electronically submit proof of future financial responsibility on an SR22 form and maintain it continuously for 180 days. All of those amounts come from Chapter 5 of the manual — verify them in the current edition of that manual before treating any of them as your number.

A principal's notice can end a juvenile's driving privilege

Chapter 1 of the manual carries a rule that has nothing to do with driving. Indiana law requires the BMV to suspend the driving privileges of a juvenile upon notification from the juvenile's school administrator or principal for any of three reasons: that the juvenile is under an expulsion, exclusion, or second or subsequent suspension from school during one school year; that the juvenile has been determined to be a habitual truant; or that the juvenile has withdrawn from school. The trigger is the school's notification, and the second or subsequent qualifier on the suspension limb is the one worth reading twice — a single school suspension is not the trigger.

Points reach young drivers on a shorter fuse than adults. Chapter 5 says the BMV may require drivers 21 years of age and older who are convicted of two or more traffic offenses within a 12-month period to complete a BMV-approved Driver Safety Program course, and states the rule for younger drivers without that window: individuals under 21 years of age may be required to complete a course if they are convicted of two or more traffic offenses. Failing to complete within 90 days from the date of the BMV's mailed notice suspends driving privileges until the course is completed and the completion is processed, and the manual asks for 7 to 10 business days for results to be processed. For scale, the same chapter values a hand-held device violation and disregarding a stop or yield sign at 4 points each, and following another vehicle too closely at 6.

Alcohol brings a second court into it. Chapter 5 says that when a driver who is under 18 years of age is cited for operating a vehicle while intoxicated, the Juvenile Court may also recommend a suspension of that driver's privileges — in addition to the probable-cause suspensions the same chapter describes for every driver, which run 180 days for failing a chemical test, one year for refusing one, and two years for refusing when there is a previous conviction for operating while intoxicated. The BMV's ordinary machinery does not stop applying because the driver is a minor; the juvenile court is layered on top of it.

What Appendix B says goes wrong for teenagers

The manual closes with an appendix written for families rather than applicants. Appendix B, Teens Behind the Wheel, lists seven risk factors: errant and risky driving together with distraction, which it names the most common contributing factor in teen crashes; inattentiveness, which it ties to multiple-vehicle crashes; excessive speed, which it ties to single-vehicle crashes and to a teenager's difficulty adjusting speed to conditions; driving with other teens; failure to wear a seat belt; being inattentive at intersections, where it says multi-vehicle crashes involving teens tend to happen; and use of alcohol or other drugs, where it notes that a small share of teen drivers accounts for a much larger share of serious injury and death. The passenger line is the one worth quoting to a sixteen-year-old: the appendix says the chance of a crash doubles with each passenger present in the vehicle.

The same appendix gives parents a list, and two items on it go past the licensing paperwork. It asks parents to practice driving with the teen while he or she has a learner's permit and during the first year of licensed driving — the year after the card arrives, not just the months before it. And it asks parents to develop a strategy for progressive privileges, letting the teen move up to a higher level of driving responsibility as experience accumulates and good decisions show up. The rest is concrete: set a good example, require seat belt use at all times, expose the teen to wet roads, snow, highways, rural roads and night driving, practice on unfamiliar roads, choose vehicles for safety rather than image, and take the time to discuss driving rules, responsibilities and consequences appropriate for your family. The appendix ends its section on the point that driver education is a first step and parents have a crucial role in teaching teens to drive.

Indiana licensing — frequently asked questions

Does a teenager who finished driver education still owe the fifty hours?

Yes, and the BMV's driver-education page answers exactly this question for parents. It says all new drivers 18 years old or younger must complete the 50-hour drive log even if they have completed a driver education course. The page then lists who those hours may be logged with when the applicant is under 18: a valid licensed driver training school instructor working under the discretion of a driver training school, or a valid licensed driver at least 25 years old and related to the applicant by blood, marriage or legal status, or a licensed spouse at least 21 years old, or a certified driver rehabilitation specialist recognized by the BMV and employed through a driver rehabilitation program. Whoever supervises, the paperwork lands on a parent: the manual says the log must be signed by a parent or legal guardian if the applicant is under 18, and that the completed State Form 54706 is submitted to the BMV at the time of application.

Can a fifteen-year-old drive with a parent before the behind-the-wheel course starts?

The BMV's driver-education page answers this in its student FAQ, and the answer is a list of four things that all have to be true at once. You must be 15 years of age. You must have completed the 30 hours of the theoretical or online portion of driver education. You must have a learner's permit. And you must be enrolled in a BMV-licensed behind-the-wheel program. Finishing the theory alone does not do it, and neither does turning 15 — the enrollment and the permit are separate conditions on the same list.

Can a teenager transfer between driver training schools partway through?

The BMV's driver-education FAQ says that in most cases transferring from one school to another during the driver education process is possible, and attaches a condition: both schools must support the facilitation of the transfer. That makes it a question to ask both providers before you pay, rather than an entitlement. It is worth settling early, because the certificate that lets a fifteen-year-old hold a permit is issued by the school as proof of enrollment, and the manual requires it to be dated no earlier than three weeks before the class starts.

How soon can a teenager retake a failed driving skills exam?

Seven days after the first or second failure. After a third failed driving skills exam while holding a learner's permit, the wait is two months from the date of that last failed exam. The BMV's knowledge-exam page adds the consequence families forget: you will be required to renew your learner's permit if it expires before you are eligible for additional driving skills exams. Since permits are valid two years from issuance and a permit expired more than 180 days brings back the knowledge exam, a run of failures late in a permit's life can cost both the wait and the written test.

Is a phone ever legal for an Indiana probationary driver?

Only for a 911 call. The probationary-license page says you may not use any type of telecommunication device while driving except to make emergency 911 calls. The manual's probationary heading says the same thing but casts it wider, as a prohibition on all drivers, including probationary driver's license holders, against using any form of telecommunications device unless it is being used to make a 911 emergency call. Elsewhere the manual gives a narrower statewide rule — no typing, transmitting or reading a text or email while the vehicle is moving unless the device is used with hands-free or voice-operated technology. Those two manual passages disagree about hands-free; the probationary page does not, so plan on 911 calls only. The manual defines the device broadly: a wireless telephone, personal digital assistant, pager or text messaging device.

Does the BMV charge anything for the driving test a teenager takes?

Not for the one it administers. The manual says there is no charge for the driving skills exam administered by the BMV, and that you provide your own vehicle for it. A test taken at a driver training school instead is part of a program the family pays the school for, and the BMV does not set that price. What the BMV does price is the card: the fee chart revised January 1, 2026 lists $9.00 for a learner's permit and $17.50 for a driver's license for a holder under 75. Confirm both amounts on that fee chart before you budget from them.

Official sources

Checked against official state sources on August 20, 2026.

Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles — the official Indiana licensing site